PANDA CAMS
NATIONAL ZOO PANDA CAM
TIBETIAN PANDA MYTH
The story begins when four young shepherdesses were killed while trying to rescue a panda from a leopard attack. When the other pandas heard of this they decided to hold a funeral in honor of the girls sacrifice.
At this time the pandas were pure white with no black markings. To honor the girls the pandas wore black arm bands to the funeral. The ceremony was so very sad the pandas began to cry. As the tears fell from their eyes, the black dye from the arm bands began to run and mingle with the tears. When they rubbed their eyes, the black dye left large spots. In their grief the pandas clutched their ears and hugged each other. The black dye marked the areas where they touched themselves and each other.
The pandas vowed never to wash off the black dye in remembrance of the girls sacrifice. They also wanted all future pandas to remember the event. So the pandas turned the shepherdesses into a mountain with four peaks. The mountain still stands in Sichuan Province near the Wolong Natural Reserve, in China.
myth from Pandas Pandas & More Pandas
PANDA FACTS
Bamboo is the main food in the panda diet. They eat very little else. This plays a key role in the pandas struggle to survive. Bamboo has a low nutritional value and the pandas digestive system does not easily break down the cellulose in the bamboo. Combine these two facts and an adult panda, who weighs 200+ lbs. must spend 14 hours, eating 25 to 33 lbs. of bamboo a day! When feeding on new bamboo shoots they can eat up to 80 lbs. The bamboo itself can be a problem. Many varieties will flower and in a short time die. They can take 5 to 10 years to re grow.
The panda habitat is reduced by man every day. They are now found in only 6 isolated mountain ranges, in China. It is believed that there are only 1,000 pandas left in the wild. Pandas have surivived a very long time. Some records show that there were pandas as far back as the ice age!
There is yet another problem in rebuilding the panda population. Many panda births are twins, but the mother will only care for one cub. When this occured with a panda in captivity, one cub was placed in an incubator and fed by hand. These efforts had a very low rate of success. The Chinese came up with an inspired solution. One cub is removed to an incubator for a short period of time. The other cub is left with the mother. THEN the cubs change places! This continues until the cubs are weaned, with both receiving the all important milk from the mom. This resulted in TWO healthy young pandas instead of one. This method has helped to increase the number of pandas living in captivity.
Surely with our help these charming symbols of peace and friendship will survive!
I have links below that will
let you watch the pandas at National
zoo, or at the San Diego Zoo. Both
sites offer lots of information.
Give it a try.
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