Pics of Head Lice Pics of Baby Pandas
Tai Shan, with mother Mei Xiang looking on, took his first steps outside at the National Zoo in December 2005. (Jessie Cohen/AFP/Getty Images)
Bill McShea, also known as the "panda guy," is a research scientist at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Constitute in Front Royal, Va.
The Smithsonian National Zoo'south panda cam maxed out its bandwidth this past calendar week as the saga of the behemothic panda family unfolded. There was celebration upon the birth of a cub, jubilant surprise at the arrival of a twin, and then heartbreak when the smaller cub didn't brand it and suspense over the true father. Despite the public fascination with these animals, certain misconceptions are stubbornly persistent. If you should discover yourself discussing the latest panda news, delight do not fall for the following myths.
1. Pandas are cuddly, gentle creatures.
Online photographs of grin people hugging baby pandas may advise that giant pandas would make perfect pets. But make no fault: They are bears and built to be aggressive. Their canines and claws are well developed, and the musculature in their limbs and jaws is sufficient to inflict serious harm.
Indeed, they do harm 1 another, particularly when males are establishing dominance or competing for females. Males in Prc's Qinling Mountains are often observed with torn ears and bite wounds from tussling with other males. And in 2007, the first captive-born male reintroduced into the wild died afterwards an credible fight with other pandas.
Attacks on humans are relatively unusual. In 1984, the National Zoo's Ling-Ling bit a keeper. Generally keepers do not enter the pandas' enclosures when the animals are there. They know that yous should no more than cuddle an adult behemothic panda than you should an developed black behave.
two. Pandas are incompetent breeders.
The original power couple at the National Zoo, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, were a breeding pair for almost 20 years. Hsing-Hsing famously attempted to mate with Ling-Ling'south foot and ear. They ultimately produced five cubs; none survived.
Such records accept led to the hypothesis that reproductive incompetence is one cistron backside the panda's endangered status. "They have no libido, no interest in repopulating the species," Brian Barrett wrote for Gizmodo in a typical bluster. All the same, there is no show that giant pandas take any problems breeding in their natural habitat. (Their rarity in the wild has to do with too many people occupying the little remaining bamboo woods.)
In the wild, aggregations of male pandas form along ridge tops in the spring, and a stream of visiting females in heat keeps the mating activity intense. That'south hard to mimic for zoo pandas. Rather, in nearly zoos one male is isolated from one female until the fateful day of estrus; and when the moment arrives, neither is socialized to know what to do.
Technology tin can assist. U.S. zoos take embraced artificial insemination for their pandas, and all the cubs built-in in recent years at the National Zoo have been the issue of it. Newborn cubs — tiny, hairless, helpless — remain vulnerable. Merely advances in veterinarian medicine and primary care for infants are improving their chances.
3. Pandas are rare in captivity.
Just l giant pandas alive outside China. That includes the surviving cub at the National Zoo, which is ane of but iv U.S. zoos holding pandas.
The central phrase, though, is "outside China," as there are approximately 345 captive pandas in Mainland china. Chinese breeding facilities take done a astounding task — a visitor to the Chengdu Inquiry Base tin run into more than 50 pandas in a day. Given that success, the International Wedlock for Conservation of Nature has been able to revise its goal upward from 300 to 500 pandas in captivity. That number will be reached inside five years at the current growth rate.
Wild pandas remain endangered — there are only an estimated 1,800 — and there is a disquisitional role for captive giant pandas in spreading a conservation message. Merely compare giant pandas with Sumatran rhinos, with only nine individuals in captivity worldwide, and the last one in United States almost to leave for Indonesia. The worldwide population of captive pandas is healthy and thriving.
4. Pandas are not your average bear.
Since they were first described past Westerners in 1869, giant pandas have been placed in the conduct family (Ursidae), the raccoon family (Procyonidae) and in their own unique family unit (Ailuropodidea), depending on whether researchers were looking at os structure, behavior or penile characteristics. They share the proper name "panda" with one other species, the crimson or lesser panda. Only in the 1980s was genetic assay able to differentiate the two, with red pandas existence placed within the procyonids and giant pandas within the bear family.
Inquire zoo visitors what makes pandas unique among bears, and they're likely to say something near the tiny cubs, black-and-white coloring or bamboo diet. But all bears give birth to altricial (underdeveloped) young. And five species of bears are some combination of black and white, while the remaining species are either all white (polar bears), all black (American black bears) or remarkably variable (brown bears).
Meanwhile, although pandas practise go heavy on bamboo, eating as much equally 44 pounds a day, they retain the capacity to eat meat in both their tooth structure and gut flora. Chinese villagers report pandas breaking into livestock pens and consuming goats and sheep. In China, we recently photographed a giant panda feeding for several days on the carcass of a takin (a big goat-like ungulate). That places pandas at one end of a spectrum of omnivorous bear species, which eat a combination of plants, insects and meat. Only polar bears are all-meat eaters.
5. Pandas are lazy.
The developed giant pandas you see at the zoo seem similar they would be just as comfy on a lounge chair as on a mountainside. Their top speed appears to just exceed an canter. They spend most of the mean solar day chomping bamboo. Contrast this with images of polar bears stalking prey amid the ice floes or dark-brown bears fighting forth salmon streams. Giant pandas appear to live the life of Riley.
What they lack in speed, though, giant pandas make upwardly in endurance. They feed most 19 hours a day, 365 days a yr. They exercise not go into an extended hibernation like other temperate bears; they practice not lie in wait for prey or sleep off a big repast. Because they are unable to build up fat reserves, they must continuously hunt for nutrient. Luckily, their food is usually nearby.
But seasonal movements upward and downwards steep hillsides are the norm in their native habitat. Juveniles disperse from their mothers' home range, and everyone moves in response to bamboo dice-offs later flowering events, with reports of half-dozen-mile treks over alpine mountains. Giant pandas are not lazy, simply comfy.
Twitter: @NationalZoo
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-pandas/2015/08/28/d4a96b1c-4bfe-11e5-bfb9-9736d04fc8e4_story.html
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