Latest EDGE Species Stories
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The Memphis Zoo is hoping a few days of privacy will include a magic moment between its giant pandas.The panda exhibit was closed for 72 hours beginning Thursday to give Ya Ya and Le Le some time to mate.A female panda has only three days a year to conceive, according to Matt Thompson, the curator of the zoo's mammal wing and overseer of the panda exhibit.The two have been placed together during previous mating periods although officials didn't hope for much because the...
BEIJING (AP) - A mini-baby boom last year has pushed up the number of pandas bred in captivity in China to 217, state media said Wednesday.Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived - both record numbers for the endangered species, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency.The previous record was the 21 baby pandas born in China's zoos and breeding centers in 2005.China has been raising...
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- If you think kids are picky, try feeding a giant panda. It takes four full-time bamboo hunters at Zoo Atlanta to satisfy the palates of the zoo's panda pair, Lun Lun and Yang Yang. And they are not always successful.The animals' diet consists almost entirely of bamboo, but they will eat only about 20 of the 200 or so species that grow in Georgia. What type they like also varies by the time of year. Sometimes the pandas will eat nothing but one variety for a week, then...
WASHINGTON -- The Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo opened its new Asia Trial and giant panda habitat Tuesday, the first phase of a complete makeover of the zoo's exhibits.Seven Asian species now call the $53 million renovated space home. Besides the zoo's three popular giant pandas, the exhibit includes a larger, more prominent space for sloth bears, fishing cats, red pandas, clouded leopards, a Japanese giant salamander and Asian small-clawed otters."Visitors are treated to up...
GRAY, Tenn. (AP) - Scientists uncovered a second fossil of a red panda species first discovered at the Gray Fossil Site two years ago. Researchers from East Tennessee State University found a lower jawbone from a red panda of the Pristinailurus bristoli species last week. "The nice thing about it is that it's confirmation," Dr. Steven Wallace, ETSU's lead paleontologist at the site, said Wednesday. "You hate to have a one-shot wonder." The species was discovered in January...
ATLANTA -- After seven years of trying and hoping, Zoo Atlanta officials announced a rare giant panda birth Wednesday, one of only a few in the United States. Lun Lun, a 9-year-old giant panda, gave birth just before 5 p.m. after 35 hours of labor. It's the first panda cub born at the Atlanta zoo and is just the fifth giant panda born at a U.S. zoo in the last six years. The cub is hairless, weighs about 4 ounces and is the size of stick of butter. The sex will not be known for weeks. Panda...
BEIJING (AP) - A giant panda in southwest China has given birth to a pair of twins, state media said, the latest additions in a baby boom for the endangered animals. Ya Ya, who lives in the Chongqing Zoo, delivered the babies about an hour apart early Tuesday, China News Service said. They were her first cubs, it said, and both mother and babies are healthy. The zoo has been closed for a week to give Ya Ya some peace, it said. One has been taken to the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and...
By Nizam AhmedUKHIA, Bangladesh -- Deep in the forests of southeastern Bangladesh, a battle rages between herds of endangered elephants and villagers whose livelihoods depend on felling trees that provide the elephants' habitat.Every year, about 30 people and five elephants die in this struggle in the hills where humans are encroaching on the forests to rebuild their lowland villages washed away by seasonal floods."Sometimes we win. Sometimes the elephants win. This is an ongoing...
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Experts in Indonesia say they have found evidence suggesting that four Javan rhino calves have been born in recent weeks, raising hopes over the prospects for a species on the brink of extinction. There are estimated to be fewer than 60 Javan rhinos worldwide, with between 26 to 58 believed to be living in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park on the far west of Java island. Signs of baby rhinos were discovered by a team of biologists and wardens in the park,...
BEIJING -- The lightest panda cub born in captivity is doing well and putting on weight since his premature birth in China on the same day the heaviest incubator-bred panda was born at another research center, state media said on Thursday.The male cub only weighed 51 grams (1.8 ounces) when he was born at the Chengdu Giant Panda Reproduction and Research Center on August 7 along with his twin brother, who was almost three times as heavy, Xinhua news agency said.Most pandas born in captivity...
Latest EDGE Species Reference Libraries
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), also known as the panda, is a species of bear that is native to southwestern and central western areas of China. Its range includes mountain ranges located primarily in Sichuan province, but pandas can also be found in the Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It once preferred a habitat within lowland areas, but human encroachment has driven the giant panda into small areas, which contain forested habitats. There are two recognized subspecies of the giant...
The falanouc is a mongoose type creature that is native to Madagascar. Its closest extant, or living, relative is the fanaloka, but it is distinct from this animal in many ways. Unlike the fanaloka, the falanouc has no anal or perineal glands. It has non-retractable claws and a mouth structure that consists of backwards sloping premolars and canines. It is thought that this is due to its primary diet of invertebrates such as snails, slugs, and worms. The falanouc prefers habitats within...
Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus bairdii) is native to Central America and northern areas of South America. It is among three species of tapir that is native to Latin America. Baird’s tapir was named after Spencer Fullerton Baird, an American naturalist who observed the creatures in 1843 on a trip to Mexico, even though W. T. White, another American naturalist, made the first documentation of the tapir. Commonly known as danta by people throughout its range, this tapir has been given other...
The Somali Wild Ass (Equus asinus somalicus), is a subspecies of the African Wild Ass. It is found in the Southern Red Sea region of Eritrea, the Afar Region of Ethiopia, and Somalia. The legs of the Somali Wild Ass are horizontally striped with black, resembling those of a zebra. Photo Credit: Robert Lawton
The Mongolian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus hemionus), is a subspecies of the Onager. It is found in Mongolia and northern China, and was previously found in Kazakhstan before it became extinct due to hunting. The numbers in China and Mongolia are also vulnerable due to poaching and competition grazing. Numbers have dropped severely in the 1990s and by 2003 the total Mongolian population was estimated at only 20,000 specimens. Poaching for meat seems to be the biggest threat for guanacos in...
