Baby Panda Adoption At Center Of New World Wildlife Fund Program
You may not be able to adopt these little guys into your home, but thanks to a new program launched this month by the World Wildlife Fund, you can symbolically adopt a baby panda as part of an effort to save the endangered species' homes in the wild.
In collaboration with Greek musician Yanni, the World Wildlife Fund has created a program where people can "adopt" a baby panda for $50, with all donations going towards its many conservations efforts, the foundation said in a press release announcing the new program.
According to National Georgraphic, there are fewer than 1,000 Giant Pandas left in their natural habitat -- the remote bamboo-rich mountain ranges of southwest China -- and about 100 more living in zoos around the world.
The giant panda adoption program comes on the heels of two new studies conducted by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute aimed at helping conservationists understand threats to panda survival.
In a study published in the International Journal of Ecology in March, researchers looked at models of climate change around the world and used them to predict how the panda's natural habitat will look in the future. They estimated that by 2080, half of the area the animals currently call home will be unsuitable for panda habitation and they will need to adapt to other areas in order to sustain their population.
“Our research predicts that climate change will substantially decrease the amount of suitable giant panda habitat within the species’ current distribution, but also that we may see new areas becoming suitable for giant pandas,” lead researcher Melissa Songer said in a press release. “The question remains as to whether giant pandas will have the capacity and opportunity to shift to new areas should they become viable."
In a separate study, researchers sought to better understand the physiological changes pandas experience during their reproductive cycles. Pandas have a notoriously low birth rate in part females are only able to mate once a year, researchers explained.
But not many breeding studies have focused exclusively on male pandas. By refocusing on the mating habits and physiology of male pandas, the researchers discovered they are able to reproduce for six months or more every year.
"It is amazing that we did not previously understand the basic physiological changes occurring in the male giant panda during the breeding season and outside of it," the study's lead researcher Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer explained in a press release. "With this information, we now have a complete picture of what is occurring physiologically for both males and females during reproduction.”
Giant Panda
Le panda géant, (« pied-de-chat noir et blanc »), est un mammifère.
Il ne vit que dans le centre de la Chine, dans des régions montagneuses recouvertes de forêts d'altitude, comme le Sichuan et le Tibet, entre 1 800 et 3 400 mètres. Une région difficile d'accès aux Européens avant le milieu du XIXe siècle, ce qui explique sa description tardive en Occident.
Il ne vit que dans le centre de la Chine, dans des régions montagneuses recouvertes de forêts d'altitude, comme le Sichuan et le Tibet, entre 1 800 et 3 400 mètres. Une région difficile d'accès aux Européens avant le milieu du XIXe siècle, ce qui explique sa description tardive en Occident.
Il existe différentes légendes à propos des taches noires du panda qui diffèrent un peu selon les sources et le lieu d'origine.
Une légende chinoise populaire raconte qu'autrefois, les pandas étaient complètement blancs, mais, qu'un jour, la plus jeune de quatre sœurs mourut, ils trempèrent les mains dans de la cendre en signe de deuil. En pleurant, ils se frottèrent les yeux pour essuyer leurs larmes, se consolèrent en entourant leurs bras autour d'eux et se bouchèrent les oreilles pour ne pas entendre les pleurs. La légende veut que ces taches de cendre soient restées sur leur fourrure.
Une autre légende semblable, provenant du Tibet, raconte que ce serait une bergère qui aurait sauvé d'un léopard un bébé panda qui se promenait avec sa mère. La bergère qui s'interposa pour défendre le jeune panda mourut, et tous les pandas, émus par son courage, pleurèrent avec de la cendre dans les mains pour respecter les rites de l'endroit.
The giant panda, or panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, literally meaning "black and white cat-foot") is a bear native to central-western and south western China.It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is 99% bamboo. Pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. In captivity they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared feed.
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