This is series...I agree. When the flowering of the BUSH that keeps pandas alive is expected to last for a decade - this is hughly series!
(Madly editing signs: TEN more years! TEN more years!)
Posted on 12/19/2004 5:30:11 PM PST by bayourod
Bamboo leaves pandas hungry Fussy animals won't eat the plant while it blossoms
BEIJING - A shortage of the staple food of China's giant panda will leave 19 of the rare animals scrounging to keep hunger at bay for as long as a decade in a reserve in the mountainous southwest, Xinhua news agency said Thursday.
Pandas are unable to eat arrow bamboo when the plant flowers, meaning the animals will have little to eat in the area for the next 10 years, the minimum period for the plant to become edible again.
"The blossoming area now accounts for 20 percent to 25 percent of the habitat of giant pandas in the reserve," Xinhua said, quoting a report on the Piankou Nature Reserve, which includes a panda habitat of 1,450 square miles.
China estimates 1,750 giant pandas live in the mountains of the southwestern Sichuan basin, while about 140 live in captivity around the world.
Logging has been the biggest threat to the endangered panda, destroying its habitat of forests with undergrowth of bamboo.
Li Zuobin, a wildlife specialist in the region, said the forestry bureau of Mianyang, the city that runs the Piankou reserve, had been preparing for the worst for the 19 pandas.
"Giant pandas in serious condition will be rushed to two neighboring giant panda research and breeding areas," Li was quoted as saying. "But luckily, we haven't received reports of starving giant pandas and hunger-induced ill giant pandas yet."
Professor Zhang Heping, director of the Wolong Nature Reserve, said the blossoming will not lead to the extinction of giant pandas, the symbol of conservation worldwide.
"Arrow bamboo has blossomed myriad times in history, but giant pandas are still around today," he said.
China last year built a biscuit factory to cater exclusively to its captive giant pandas, giving them a more healthy choice than their usual steamed bread.
Those stupid animals can't even screw without serious intervention and NOW they're picky eaters? Write off the whole damn species and get it over with.
that reminds me, I have always wanted to taste panda. medium rare to start.
Silly FReepers. Don't you know this is part of a world-wide hunger fast to protest BUSH having stolen the election--AGAIN?!?
Panda Jerky ping! (tastes a lot like Spotted Owlburgers)
This is series...Isn't that amazing!
" if you run out of bamboo shoots you can substitute biscuits."
Bamboo McMuffin ??????
They taste sorta like chicken.
They would make a beautiful rug!!
I agree. An animal that is too stupid to breed enough to maintain the population (sounds like Europeans) is doomed to extinction whether mankind helps or hinders.
ROTFLMAO.......Pandas or Democrats ?
Wow, panda's bake bread and then steam it, I am impressed.
Pandas invented the bagel.
It's stoies like this that give pandas a black eye.
BTTT!!!!!!!
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