Word: xiang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pity poor Xiang Xiang. Pampered from birth, his every need anticipated by a loyal band of caregivers at Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center, the baffled bear received the shock of his young life soon after his fourth birthday. Last April 28, he was driven into the middle of thick bamboo forest and abandoned, making him the first giant panda bred in captivity to be released by Chinese scientists into the wild...
...Although he had received some survival training, Xiang Xiang soon found he had been dropped off in a very rough neighborhood. In late December, forest wardens spotted him via one of a string of video monitors positioned throughout the park. He had been bitten by a wild panda in a fight for territory, says Zhang Hemin, director of the Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda at Wolong. "Our researchers found him and brought him back. The doctor treated him briefly, then sent him back to the wild." Unfortunately for Xiang Xiang, the tough-love approach only compounded...
...longer in jeopardy makes it harder to justify the more questionable aspects of its breeding programs. The 200,000-hectare Wolong Nature Reserve, for example, faces pressure from human development and is barely large enough to support its wild bear population, let alone additional pen-reared animals like Xiang Xiang. Then there's the problem that, with the exception of ungulates like deer, animals raised in captivity are rarely able to adjust to the rigors of the wild. Efforts to reintroduce orangutans into Indonesia's fast-disappearing forests have met with scant success, for example. Even Keiko the killer whale...
...supply with animals, adding that any donations are used to expand protected areas and for research. And he insists that reintroducing pandas into the wild will help sustain populations over the long run. "It is not responsible for anyone to declare that the experiment is pointless," Zhang says. Xiang Xiang's coddled siblings had better prepare to follow him into the dangerous depths of the forest...
...animals if there's nowhere for them to go? Cynics note that zoos pay handsomely (up to a million dollars a year) for the privilege of hosting the animals. If prominently public attempts to reintroduce pandas into the wild is what it takes to keep the breeding program going, Xiang Xiang's coddled brothers and sisters had better prepare themselves to follow him back into the wild. Maybe they should borrow some of those electric probes for protection...