panda

The panda bear cub recently born at the Smithsonian Zoo is approaching her 100th day of life. Following Chinese tradition, the zoo will be announcing her name on December 1st. In the meantime, the zoo is asking for your help in choosing her name by casting your vote using the online poll that can be found here. The finalists are: Bao Bao (宝宝): Precious, treasure. Ling Hua (玲花): Darling, delicate flower. Long Yun (龙韵): Long is the Chinese symbol of the dragon; Yun means charming. Combined this represents a sign of luck for panda cooperation between China and the United States. Mulan (木兰):…
Scientists at the Smithsonian National Zoo have now confirmed that the new panda bear cub born on August 23rd is a girl and Tian Tian is her father.
  Image of panda bear cub at its first exam from the National Zoo. Exciting news from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park! Mei, a giant panda bear at the zoo has given birth to a cub weighing in at 137 grams (~4.83 ounces)-too cute!! DNA tests will determine the sex as well as the paternity of the panda cub, which is either Tian Tian from the National Zoo or Gao Gao from the San Diego Zoo. You can follow the Twitter feed from the Smithsonian here: #cubwatch  in additon to checking out the live panda cam at the zoo.  
"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?" -Pablo Picasso As an animal lover, like others here on scienceblogs, as well as a big fan of Halloween costumes, it's probably unsurprising that a good, creative animal costume will crack me up. Three more turtle dogs and a giant rat will complete the set! Turn your sweet, harmless puppy into the fearsome guardian of Hades by adding two extra heads! Sometimes, you just need to play to your strengths. In this case, it's ridiculous cuteness. Dressing animals like other animals is practically its own artform…
"The males often prefer eating to mating." Apparently, giant panda dudes (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in captivity would rather sit around and munch on bamboo than get it on with the females. And this is a problem at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre, where scientists are urging the pandas to breed, for conservation purposes. What's the answer to this important problem? Panda porn, of course! Pandas are known to be isolated creatures and poor breeders, and in captivity the problem may be exacerbated. Zhihe and his team have tried a number of measures to try to cure the male panda of…
Thanks to K-Zed
ZooBorns is a new site dedicated to scarfing up everyone else's internet traffic by posting nothing but cute baby animals, like these Red Panda Cubs recently born in the Edmonton Valley Zoo: Zooborn is produced by Chris and Andrew, who are very dedicated animal-symps. Andrew runs the blog Zooillogix. ZooBorns brings you the newest and cutest exotic animal babies from zoos and aquariums around the world. As you can see, the site itself is a newborn, but we're here to stay, so check back frequently for new critters! The Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) lives in central/southern Asia (China, India,…
They just don't write spine tinglers about killer pandas like they used to. Check out Heroic Comics #35, Facing Death in a Panda's Mouth, in its entirety below the fold. Thank god they shot that panda. I thought they were goners! Via judgeabook.
Yesterday's photo of Tai Shan received so many positive responses I thought I would put another one up. Getting these shots could be a little difficult at times, however, (warning: bad pun ahead) as it was definitely pandemonium around the enclosure when the young bear came out. His parents Mei Xiang and Tian Tian certainly didn't get as much attention, but they also were not as active or curious as their offspring. If you want to look in on the pandas yourself the National Zoo has a Panda Cam that will allow you to do so.
As I mentioned in the description of yesterday's "Photo of the Day," when I visited the National Zoo I wanted to make sure I got there especially early, and this Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) cub is part of the reason. Any exhibit that holds a giant panda, especially a baby one, is going to get swamped by visitors so I wanted to make sure I had a chance to get some decent shots (although I didn't know that the pandas would not be let out until 10 AM so I had a bit of waiting to do). This particular individual is a 2 year old male named Tai Shan, the offspring of Mei Xiang (the mother…
Although I've been able to capture some good Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) pictures when the animals have been bright-eyed and busy-tailed (then again, aren't they always bushy-tailed?), I love this shot because I was able to make a "boring" sleeping subject seem more interesting. It was taken at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. this past spring at about 6 AM and the two red pandas sleeping in the trees did not move the entire day. If you want to know more about these fascinating (and endangered) mammals, Jeremy at The Voltage Gate ran a multi-part series about them earlier this year; Part…
Next up Giraffe Dog, Zebra Dog, and Genera Hypercolor Dog!Add to: Slashdot del.icio.usredditnewsvineY! MyWeb
Have a diet rich in fiber? Eating bamboo all day, everyday, means pandas most certainly do. Now, researchers at a giant panda reserve in southern China are looking for paper mills to process their panda's fiber rich poo! The center's 40 bamboo-fed pandas produce about 2 tons of "processed material" a day, which could make a fine quality paper. Liao Jun, a researcher at the center, is not worried about squeamish consumers. "People won't find it gross at all," Liao said. "They probably won't even be able to tell it's from panda poop."Eats, poops and leaves.Motivational panda-poop office poster…