Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news55~9.htm/text0050.txt

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The Standard (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada)
October 20, 1997

Marineland approached in search for new whale

By Jack Keating, Southam Newspapers, Vancouver

The Vancouver Aquarium is stepping up its attempts to find a replacement
killer whale after the sudden and premature death of Finna.

"We're actually talking to three different institutions in three different
countries about where we could find a companion for Bjossa," aquarium
director John Nightingale said Sunday of the talks with Marineland in
Niagara Falls and French and Japanese institutions.

"We'd like to do it as quickly as possible," said Nightingale, aware of the
opposition to bringing another whale into captivity.

"It'll be months. Now I don't know whether that's two or six months."

Nightingale, who also expects to talk to U.S. facilities today, made the
announcement during a "tribute to Finna" held at the aquarium.

The aquarium waived its $10 entry fee for the tribute.

"We're looking for a killer whale that is already in an institution
somewhere in the world, preferably one that was born there.

"We'd like to have a female companion. And we'll keep you posted as that
search continues," Nightingale said.

Zoocheck Canada Inc.
3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1729
Toronto, ON M4N 3P6
Ph [phone]  Fax    [phone] or [phone]
E-Mail:  [e-mail]
Web Site:  http://web.idirect.com/~zoocheck
Registered Charity No. 0828459-54
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 12:00:35 +0000
From: jwed <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Panda success breeds problem (CN)
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China Daily - 22nd October 1997

Five years ago, leading scientists in wildlife research worldwide held a
conference in Washington to discuss ways to conserve giant pandas and red
pandas.

The idea of re-introducing pandas born and bred in zoos to the wild was
brought up.

But at the end of the conference, the scientists concluded that it was
inappropriate to re-introduce pandas to the wild.

Late last month, the same idea was put forward again for discussion at an
international conference on conservation of giant pandas held in Wolong,
Sichuan Province. The steady increase in the number of captive pandas in
the country is causing strains on the facilities and creating problems for
the healthy growth of giant pandas in captivity.

The giant panda is a rare and distinct species native only to China. Now
the habitat of the giant panda is limited to a small area where the borders
of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces come together.

Because of the pressure of human settlement and the deterioration of the
natural environment, the wild panda population now estimated to be only
about 1,000, divided into more than 20 small groups.

Most of the groups have less than 50 pandas, and the smallest groups have
only 3 to 5. The habitats are also divided into several isolated "islands"
and hence the chance of exchanges between different panda groups has
decreased.

Scientists said that this will undoubtedly increase inbreeding in the wild
population and will have ill effects on the future panda population.

On the other hand, Chinese scientists have succeeded in breeding captive
pandas.

>From 1963 to April 1997, captive pandas have given birth to 179 cubs at 119
farrows around the world.

Most of them have been bred in China's 30-odd zoos and nature reserves. The
first artificially inseminated panda cub was born in 1978; in 1980,
scientists used artificial insemination technology and frozen sperm to
reproduce a panda successfully.

In 1990, Chinese scientists developed a method to ensure the survival of
both cubs in the case of twin births, while in the natural condition the
female panda always abandons one of hers twin cubs; in the same year, a set
triplet cubs also survived.

Of the pandas born in captivity, only 44 per cent survived more than half a
year, 30 per cent more than 2.5 years, and 21 per cent more than 3 years.
Such rates show that although scientists succeeded in reproducing captive
pandas, the overall surviving rate of captive panda babies is low.

Despite the low rate of survival, many reserves and reproduction bases have
successfully bred more pandas, largely supported by special funds from the
Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Construction and the National Natural
Science Foundation Committee of China.

In Wolong National Reserve in Sichuan Province, researchers of the China
Research Centre of the Giant Panda Reservation reproduced their first panda
cubs in 1986.

>From 1991 to 1996, the centre successfully reproduced 16 cubs, 11 of which
are still living, which means the survival rate has risen to 70 per cent,
much higher than the average. This year, panda breeders are glad to see
that three of those captive born panda cubs have reached maturity and are
ready to breed.

The reproduction of captive pandas is different from that of wild pandas.

In their natural environment, a female panda normally gives birth to one
cub and raises it for about two years and then breeds again, as Professor
Pan Wenshi and his students from Beijing (Peking) University have shown
through their years of research on the giant pandas living in the wild in
the Qinling Mountains in southern Shaanxi Province. So wild female pandas
are able to have a baby every two years.

With pandas in captivity, scientists and researchers can take the cubs from
their mothers and artificially raise them so as to let their mothers breed
again earlier than in the wild. This could double the panda's captivity
birth rate.

"A female panda can bear cubs to about the age of 20 , and the male is
sexually active until about the same age," said Liu Weixin, a panda
breeding expert from Beijing Zoo.

That means if a female panda begins its reproduction at three and a half or
four, it has 16 to 17 years to give birth to panda cubs.

But the potential of increasing the captive panda population is both
exciting and worrying news to scientists -- It does indicate the
effectiveness of their efforts, but on the other hand, the captive pandas
are facing the pressure of increasing population.

In Wolong Reserve, for example, the breeding centre of the reserve has 28
pandas, though nine of them are lent out for reproduction in other places.

"Five female pandas are ready to reproduce," said Zhang Hemin, a young
researcher in the Wolong Reserve. "We estimate that the reproduction rate
will increase in the coming years, base on our success so far."

If three cubs are born each year, the breeding centre will have 15 new
pandas in the next 5 years, which does not consider other young pandas
starting to reproduce.

"Wolong just expanded its breeding centre to improve the pandas' living
conditions," Zhang said. "But we are now being faced with a space problem
because of the increasing population.

"We think it is not suitable to artificially breed such a big population of
pandas."

Acknowledging the achievements and problems, wildlife experts at the
international conference late last month still see too many unsolved
problems.

The biggest problem is that they still have little knowledge about the wild
panda and their living environments. So that they cannot judge if the
captive panda would be able to adjust to a wild environment, which is quite
different to the specially designed panda houses.

A week of discussion failed to find enough evidence to indicate that the
re-introduction of the panda to the wild would be successful.

But Chinese scientists urged that the experimental research on the
re-introduction should begin as soon as possible.

At Wolong, researchers have already started some experiments to identify
the requirements for the re-introduction of pandas to the wild. More and
more captive pandas now are released daily to hills near their pens to get
familiar with the semi-wild environment.

The researchers there also suggested building more complex facilities to
train the captive pandas to adjust to the wild environment.

But on top of everything else, they still face a shortage of funds.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Date: 10/22/97
Author: Shao Ning
Copyright⌐ by China Daily


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