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The last U.S. zoo with pandas in its care expects to say goodbye to the four giant bears this fall. Zoo Atlanta is making preparations to return panda parents Lun Lun and Yang Yang to China along with their American-born twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun, zoo officials said Friday. There is no specific date for the transfer yet, they said, but it will likely happen between October and December. The four Atlanta pandas have been the last in the United States since the National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China last November. Other American zoos have sent...

In a heartwarming video that has captured the attention of millions, pandas in China's Chongqing Zoo have been seen sitting and eating like humans. These adorable black and white bears have caused quite a stir on social media, with some viewers questioning whether they are the real deal or simply humans in clever disguises.

No matter the distance or the weather, Jane Christensen was determined to see the giant pandas before they left Washington. Now in her 60s, Christensen told AFP she had been captured by the species' magical cuteness over a half-century ago, when China first gifted two pandas to the United States. "I've had 'panda-monium' ever since," she said under a chilly rain outside the Smithsonian National Zoo's panda exhibit, hundreds of miles from her home in Michigan. All three of the zoo's pandas are leaving for China by the end of the year, bringing at least a temporary end to a...

On Thursday, the giant panda Ya Ya, who had been living in the US for 20 years, landed in China. Ya Ya's return was highly anticipated and joyful. However, CNN has published an article on Wednesday, entitled, "'Bring Ya Ya home': How a panda in the US turbocharged Chinese nationalist sentiment," using the panda's homecoming trip to create hype. CNN not only misinterpreted Chinese people's attention to Ya Ya as a symbol of Chinese nationalism, but also claimed that the Chinese media uses pandas to fan anti-US sentiment. CNN discusses Chinese people's concerns about giant pandas from the perspective of...

Congratulations on your new panda cub, Washington! You’re prolonging the existence of a hopeless and wasteful species the world should’ve given up on long ago. I understand the impulse. Some people find them cute. Pandas don’t have much of a habitat left in the wild, thanks to heedless human development. And zoos imagine they’re doing the right thing, pulling in some extra visitors while helping conservation efforts. But the first test of a species’ worthiness for conservation should be some instinct for self-preservation. And pandas fail objectively. First, their breeding habits don’t suggest a species brimming with vitality. Pandas at...

Chinese officials have announced that giant pandas are no longer endangered after efforts to help drive up their population, according to multiple reports. Cui Shuhong, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said Wednesday that massive conservation efforts have allowed the population size of the pandas to reach more than 1,800, NBC and CNN reported. "China has established a relatively complete nature reserves system," Cui said, according to CNN. "Large areas of natural ecosystems have been systematically and completely protected, and wildlife habitats have been effectively improved." The expert added that populations of some other endangered species, like Siberian...

Everyone thinks Pandas are such cute and cuddly looking animals. Easy for them to say though. I doubt they have ever been attacked by one? Well the guy in this video learned that you better not get too close to them. Especially if you got something they want. As I watched this and some other videos on Pandas, I was struck how China takes such good care of their Pandas? After all, what China gives the Pandas is what Democrats in America are promising for all the people. Half of us will play all day, and the other half...

A wild panda with manure. Credit: Fuwen Wei. ================================================================ A team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences working with the Beijing Zoo, has found a possible explanation for horse manure rolling (HMR) by giant pandas. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group outlines their decade-long study of the odd behavior by the pandas and what they found. Approximately 10 years ago, members of the research team observed a giant panda living in the wild pausing to roll itself in a large pile of horse manure. Intrigued, the team began watching for...

China has taken its love for giant pandas to new heights. An airline company has launched a daily flight inspired by the black-and-white animals, which is considered by the nation to be its national treasure. Passengers on the so-called 'Panda Route' are transported by an Airbus A350 sporting cartoon livery of eight pandas, greeted by air hostesses donning panda-inspired uniforms and treated with food resembling the image of the lovely bears.

Expect pandemonium. If Congress fails to avert a government shutdown by its Friday deadline, the popular panda cameras at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington will be turned off, according to a statement from the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian's lion and elephant cameras will also go dark if the federal government is shut down, the statement read... "A shutdown will not affect the Zoo's commitment to the safety of staff and the standard excellence in animal care," the statement read.

Tumbling through the air with her paws outstretched, this little panda cub has had enough of her sibling for one day. Video footage captured at a giant panda breeding centre in Chengdu, southwestern China, shows the youngster named Qi Guo being mauled by her twin sister Qi Yi. Her fur is continually yanked roughly by her overly-playful sibling, causing her to plummet from a wooden climbing frame to the ground.

Berlin's Zoological Gardens looks set to get two new pandas to replace the much-loved Bao Bao, one of the world's oldest male giant pandas, who died in 2012 aged 32. Merkel announced on Thursday that both China and Germany had opened talks to bring two new black and white bears to Germany. She met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as part of her official visit to China. Describing the two countries fondness for the giant bears, she said: "This is a very special piece of China that will please a lot of people in Germany."

For years, the Left in Britain had a taunt: “There are more pandas in Scotland than there are Tory MPs.” Ha ha ha! Yes, there were two pandas in the Edinburgh Zoo and only one Conservative representing a Scottish constituency in parliament. Activists used to dress as pandas to remind David Cameron and the Conservatives of this fact. Well, guess what? There are now more pandas in Scotland than there are Labour MPs. Yup: After its wipeout at the hands of the Scottish National Party, Labour has a single MP representing a Scottish constituency. Just as the Tories (still) have...

One day in March 2010, Isak McCune started clearing his throat with a forceful, violent sound. The New Hampshire toddler was 3, with a Beatles mop of blonde hair and a cuddly, loving personality. His parents had no idea where the guttural tic came from. They figured it was springtime allergies. Soon after, Isak began to scream as if in pain and grunt at his parents and peers. When he wasn’t throwing hours-long tantrums, he stared vacantly into space. By the time he was 5, he was plagued by insistent, terrifying thoughts of death. “He would smash his head into...

The National Zoo's Giant Panda gave birth to a cub, the zoo said on Friday

A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook southwest China’s Sichuan province on April 21 traumatized its giant panda population, reported the state-run Xinhua agency. No deaths or injuries of pandas have been reported at the Bifengxia Panda base, located 50 km away from the quake epicenter in Longmen county, Ya’an city, is home to 61 members of the endangered species. Nearly half of them were moved here from the Wolong Natural Reserve five years ago after a 8.0 magnitude quake there. According to video footage, when the quake occurred at 8.02 a.m. Saturday, the pandas were stunned; some later climbed...

Researchers at China's breeding and research centre were concerned that five-year-old Ke Lin and her partner Yongyong never seemed to be in the mood. So they played the couple a video of pandas mating in the wild to in an effort to get them to mate.

Panda blood compound 6x more powerful than current antibiotics In what could be either very good news or very bad news for our fluffy black and white friends, it's been discovered that panda blood contains an antibiotic compound that's vastly more powerful than anything we've got right now. Researchers at the Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University in China have extracted a compound called cathelicidin-AM from the blood of giant pandas. Cathelicidin-AM is what's called a gene-encoded antimicrobial peptide, a natural antibiotic that's produced by a panda's immune cells. Testing has shown that cathelicidin-AM can kill even drug resistant...

They are a picture of cute that would make anyone say 'aah'. But these Giant Panda cubs, napping peacefully in their nursery, have a far more important role to play. They have been born and raised in the research base of the Giant Panda Breeding Centre in Chengdu, China, which is attempting to preserve the notoriously sex-shy species.

<p>Pandas. Zoos want them, other bears want to be them (maybe?). But are they really worth all the trouble? Let's fight about it: Point: Pandas Are Awesome!</p> <p>Counterpoint: Pandas Are Terrible!</p> <p>I just want to get this straight right off the bat: I really don't hate pandas.* I just love nature. And nature has made it clear in no uncertain terms that pandas need to die. Now.</p>