Latest Giant Pandas Stories

As early as next month, Chinese authorities will begin the construction of a new mega-breeding facility for giant pandas in the Wolong nature reserve, says the official Xinhua news agency.The announcement came after last year's 8.0-magnitude earthquake leveled much of their former habitat in a protected region of the southwestern Sichuan province where most of their captive pandas had previously been held.The reserve's Communist party boss Huang Jianhua revealed that the new base would be...

A major Taiwan newspaper printed an April Fools' Day prank Wednesday that claimed two pandas received as a gift from mainland China were disguised forest bears. The Taipei Times claimed the latest friction between Taiwan and China centered on Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, a pair of pandas given to the Taipei Zoo as a gift from China, The Times of London reported Wednesday. Taipei Zoo official Connie Liu was quoted in the hoax story as saying she became suspicious after the pandas, a species...

A pair of pandas sent from China to a zoo in Taiwan enjoyed their first outside trip Saturday on Valentine's Day. Some couples came to the zoo with bouquets of red roses to mark the occasion, Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency reported. Visitors said the pandas appeared to be enjoying their outdoor enclosure, which features hilly areas, a waterfall and grass and trees to simulate the pandas' native environment. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan arrived in Taipei in late December and went on...

The National Zoo in Washington issued a public appeal Wednesday for bamboo after the food supply for the zoo's giant pandas became dangerously low. The zoo said bamboo supplies on its grounds did not regrow this year and the main consumers of the green stalks, giant pandas Tai Shan, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, collectively eat about 1,400 pounds of bamboo per week, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Smaller amounts of bamboo are also consumed by raccoon-sized red pandas, elephants and...

Two giant 4-year-old pandas named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were settling in Tuesday at their new home in Taiwan after leaving mainland China.The pandas were moved by truck and plane from a breeding compound in southwestern Sichuan Province to the Taiwan Zoo in Taipai, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported.Images of the popular pair already decorate book and department stores and public transportation terminals.Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan are expected to draw an estimated 6 million...

The San Diego Zoo will receive pandas from China during the next five years under a new loan agreement between the two sides, officials say. Giant Panda Conservation Foundation President David Towne said the loan agreement during the ongoing economic crisis worldwide will allow the tourist site to continue to receive pandas from China, but at nearly half the cost, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday. An official with the China Wildlife Conservation Association praised the deal for...

RICHARDSON, Texas, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As it turns out, the pen really is mightier than the sword. And the machete. And the bulldozer, or whatever else they're using to demolish Earth's endangered rain forests. Or, at least one pen is: the new Bamboo Tornado(TM) by Retro 51. It's a pen that's fun to use. Lightweight, ergonomic, and writes like a dream. More important, the barrel is made from solid bamboo, a durable hardwood that's also eco-friendly. Bamboo -- the...

THE Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost. (c) 2008 Daily Mirror. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

BEIJING, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The current national holiday Chinese people are celebrating also meant a feast for the captive animals in Wuhan, the Hubei Province capital. Thursday's Changjiang Times reported Wuhan Zoo had experienced an influx of tourists in the first four days of the "golden week" holiday that began on Monday. Wednesday's peak resulted in the arrival of about 30,000 visitors. The animals at the zoo were all overworked in keeping the visitors entertained. Zoo keepers...

ATLANTA (AP) -- The only panda born at a U.S. zoo so far this year was placed in an incubator on Monday for closer monitoring by zookeepers after visitors flocked to watch mother and child on a live video feed at Zoo Atlanta. Zoo officials said in a release they wanted to more closely watch the tiny, hairless cub -- which is the size of a stick of butter -- based on the behavior of the cub and its mother, Lun Lun, in the zoo's birthing den. The panda cub, the gender of which hasn't yet been...