Double-wattled Horned Cassowary

I spend a lot of time at the Zoo—it’s two blocks away, and I work there. It’s one of the best places to go for photography in D.C., especially early morning when the light is beautiful, the animals ar

The National Zoo's pandas Tai Shan and Mei Xiang

Red Panda at the National Zoo

Pink flamingos at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Pink flamingos stand on one foot at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Cheetah at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Hey There,

We had an off day before moving on to Fukuoka, so I decided to visit the Ueno Zoo.  I don’t know what it is about zoos, but they are one of my favorite tourist-y places in any city.  Maybe it’s the open air and the living exhibits.  I’ve even been to the zoo in Binghamton, which was probably the lamest zoo I’ve been to (a bunny rabbit in a cage was an exhibit).

I had been expecting to see a Giant Panda at the Ueno Zoo, especially since all the ads for the zoo include a picture of one.  Unfortunately, at the entrance there were several signs saying that there were no Giant Pandas at this zoo.  So, I had to settle for these:

The Ueno Zoo is a pretty small zoo.  I was able to see everything in only about three hours.  One of the best exhibits is the Red Panda exhibit, which is right near the entrance.  Red Pandas are probably my favorite animal, however I’ve never actually seen one move.  At the Bronx Zoo, the Seattle Zoo and any other zoo I’ve been to, if we can see a red panda, it is usually curled up on a branch sleeping.  Up until this zoo, the only moving red panda I ever saw was in Kung Fu Panda.  These pandas were pretty lively.

The last group of pictures I’ll show here are of penguins, with the last being the card showing the species of these particular penguins.

I’ve always wondered how they came up with the common names for things.  These particular penguins were actually African Penguins.  They are called “Jackass Penguins” because the noises they make are similar to that of a donkey.  I’m sure that’s what the Japanese writing says.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Friends from Sydney were down this weekend, so spent most of that time with them.

www.detroitzoo.org/Newsflashes/2009_Press_Releases/The_Detroit_Zoo_Has_Bred_a_Panda_That%27s_Red/

Can you stand to have yet another vid of the red pandas? (yeah, course you can – they’re cuddly)

Not that they’re cuddling one another that much. They’ve been together 6 or 7 weeks now and i don’t see much interaction going on between them.

Best you can say is that the’re not not getting on. They’re benignly ignoring one another.

Happy to co-exist but not co-habit. Content enough to be alone together.

Hopefully they’ll warm up to one another eventually.

Get the Winter over first. Then it’ll be a Spring romance.

That Randy’s gonna come acourting ya Mand!

To lose one Red Panda, as Lady Bracknell might have observed, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both, as Galloway Wildlife Park in Kirkcudbright did last February, looks like carelessness.

The adult female, Pichu, was recovered two months later. Her cub Isla remained at large until last Thursday, BBC News reports.

Sadly, last week Isla was found injured by the side of the road between Kippford and Dalbeattie in Kirkudbrightshire. She was taken to a vet, but later succumbed to her injuries.

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At the time of the escape, park owner John Denerley expressed cautious optimism for the future of the pandas, telling the BBC: “To cope with the lack of food during the winter months, red pandas have evolved several ways of meeting their energy demands. They … have a very low metabolic rate – almost as low as sloths – and can slow their metabolism even further in colder temperatures.”

Last week Denerley said: “Amazingly, Isla survived in the wild for such a long period and was in good condition since she escaped … We are devastatingly upset over her death.”

The Red Panda, also known as the Lesser Panda, or Firefox, is of uncertain phylogenetic affinity. Scientists have reached some agreement on what it is not: a cat, a raccoon, a fox or a bear. Indeed it may not even be a panda. But what it is remains a contentious issue.

A recent discussion of the phylogeny of this Asian curiosity can be found in Flynn et al. (DOI: 10.1006/mpev.2000.0819), who place it among the badgers.

If you recognised the lyric from the Tom Paxton track, well done. We went to the Cotswold Safari Park with our kids today – the first time myself or my other half have been there since we were about 9 years old, and probably the same gap for my in-laws who met us there. Enjoy the photos (there are far more on Flickr);

See how many species you can name…

1.01 No More Good Days

Is this the start of a new cult favourite?

Remember this will be a SPOILER review.

So the first episode of the most anticipated new show of the fall season has aired.  The hype machine has been building for a long time now, we’ve heard lots of hearsay but the time is now to see if all what has been said is true.  Well all what was said is probably true.  It’s doubtful that any new show airing this fall will be as intriguing or well put together as this.

What I’ve heard constantly from the past couple of months is that this show has the potential to be the new Lost.  It’s a bold statement and everytime I heard that comment, I laughed to myself, saying “there will never be a show like Lost again.”  It’s true though, there won’t be another show like Lost ever, I just can’t see it happening.  Though from the basis of the pilot of Flashforward this has the potential to fill the gap once Lost leaves us.  It has an interesting premise which will keep you thinking and force you to go onto internet forums to voice your opinion on what you think is going on.  Plus that final scene in which you find out that someone was walking around when everyone has their flashforward gives you that vital and quite chilling mystery which is so important.

The visions that everyone has and the way that they are effecting the characters lives now is interesting.  We know that Mark (Joseph Fiennes) is drinking in his vision, he is now a recovering alchohlic.  Also that Olivia (Sonya Walger) is having an affair with the father of the boy she saved in this episode.  Some characters saw great things in their flashforward, others saw terrible things.  It’s going to be very obvious that Mark and Olivia will try everything to make sure that the future they saw doesn’t happen.  Also any other bad events that people saw, maybe the Government will try everything possible to prevent them, like terrorist attacks for example.

Geeky Thoughts:-

• Did everyone see the Oceanic billboard during the stakeout with Mark and Demetri?  A nice nod to a show which without it, this show wouldn’t be on the air.
• So Demetri (John Cho) didn’t see anything in his flashforward.  Does this mean he actually does die before that date or is it something else?
• What was with the Kangaroo?
• In Mark’s vision you can see a sign for something called Red Panda, also in the episode was a billboard for the company.  What is Red Panda?  Evil corporation?

The potential of the show is grand, it has everything that I want from these types of shows.  The great premise, intriguing mystery and hopefully great characters.  Certainly it got me wanting to tune in for the next episode and if it does that every week then I will stay with it.

Favourite Scene: It has to be the end when they view the mysterious black figure roaming the stadium when everyone is blacked out.  It was quite chilling and gave me a reason to come back for more.

Episode Title Meaning: No More Good Days was spoken by Mark and Olivia’s daughter after she witnessed her flashforward.

Quietly settling in together.

They seem as shy of one another as they are of the outside world.

Randy did a lot of circling around and around.

Mandy took no notice.

She’s not gonna drop her knickers for any old randy pandy with a red hot poker…. Lol….

[Julie]

After arriving at Tokyo Station, we were able to navigate to our hostel train stop just fine, but we wandered for a good hour longer than we needed to before finally arriving at the actual hostel.  We actually walked right by it once, failing to notice the tiny sign in the window across the street from where we were walking.  After our third round of asking for directions, we found it!

Keeping with the trend, we decided to explore the area without a map or destination in mind.  We ended up stumbing upon not only a vending machine with HUGE cans of soda, but also a very polite waiter of a fancy bistro who gave us directions to a cheap yet delicious sushi place.  We found our way back with minimal confusion.

The next 5 days went like this: Disney Sea, shopping Harajuku and Shibuya, Ueno Park and Zoo, baseball at Tokyo Dome, and saying farewell at Tokyo Station.

Disney train

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

red panda, Ueno Zoo

anteater

flamingos

Ueno Park Fountain

Tokyo Dome

Hanshin Tigers vs. Yomiuri Giants

Tiger fans cheered their team to victory!

Thunder Dolphin, roller coaster near Tokyo Dome.

We did this at night! The view from the top was beautiful and the ride was crazy!

Thanks for visiting, Britni! )

There’s an old geezer moaning in the back of this vid about why the zoo aren’t getting another panda in to breed.

Well they are. They have. You’re looking at him!

It’s Randy. Finally out of quarantine. Having a little feel around. He’s got his own barrel to escape back into. And Mandy has got hers.

Hopefully red Randy comes calling on coy Mandy before long.

And then we’ll get the pitter patter paws of little Andy. Or Candy. Or even Sandy. Lol.

Nicht nur die Großen Pandas, auch die Kleinen Pandas (auch Rote Pandas oder Katzenbär genannt) zählen zu den gefährdeten Tierarten.

Roter Panda im Tiergarten Schönbrunn, 6. August 2009

Tipp: Dieses Foto gibt es auch als Desktophintergrund für den PC

Neben dem Tiergarten Schönbrunn werden Rote Pandas in Österreich derzeit auch im Linzer Zoo, Schmidinger Zoo, in Hellbrunn (Salzburg) sowie in Gars am Kamp gehalten.

Auf pandanews gibt es nun eine eigene Seite zu Rote Pandas, die in Österreich leben.

Lies mehr …

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists Red Panda is a vulnerable species. Here is the IUCN entry for the Red Panda.

Red Panda - Image Source: Wikipedia

Red Panda is also the state animal of Sikkim and its population is dwindling in captive and in wild. The Sikkim Himalayan Zoological Park in Gangtok has embarked on a breeding and conservation program for Red Panda.

The State run Himalayan Zoological Park had started the captive breeding programme from 1997 of the Red Pandas with the support from the Central government.

Located at an altitude of 5840 feet at Bulbuley (about 3 kms from Gangtok), the park is spread over an area of 205 hectares of  mountaineous land. It has been identified as the most suitable for Panda conservation program as it is next to a panda habitat that contains bamboo, the staple diet of the Red Panda. Read more here.

A super cute little Red Panda was born on June 4th, 2009. (news with photos, news with video).

Here is a video of the cute Red Panda papa。

P.S. For some strange (may be too literal) reason, the Shanghai Zoo translates Red Panda (“小熊貓”) as ”Lesser Panda” instead of using the proper name of (“Red Panda”)

P.P.S. CBC “Calgary Zoo welcomes red panda cub” (with cool video footage of baby),

“Goemans said zoo staff are watching the cub’s five-year-old mother, Malikha, carefully and are keeping veterinary checks as brief as possible to avoid distressing either mom or baby. The public won’t be able to see the panda cub until the end of the summer.

“Once again Malikha is being a very good mother, and while she tolerates me briefly taking the cub for health checks, she grooms her and looks her over as soon as I return her to the nest box,” Goemans said.”

Meet baby Styan red panda cub Sha-Lei. Isn’t she just the cutest little bundle of fur you’ve ever seen? She was born in Edmonton, Canada on June 13. You can read the full story at www.dailymail.co.uk.

Arunachal Pradesh- The land of the rising sun is blessed with the maximum natural beauty any land can possess in this planet. This is a state which has one among the largest number of Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks in the country. The list of the Sanctuaries and Nation Parks are endless. The wildlife population in this whole area is rare and valuable. It is the home to several rare and endangered species of flora and fauna. The endangered species include, mishmi, takin, hoolock gibbon, musk deer, bharal, hisbid hare, flying squirrel, elephant, tiger, gaur, barking deer, black bear, red panda only to name a few. The area also shelter approximately more than 500 species of birds.

The lists of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks include Pakhui Wildlife Sanctuary, Seijosa · Itanagar Wild life Sanctuary, Naharlagun · Dr. D. Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary, Pasighat · Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, Roing  Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary, Miao Eagle Nest Wildlife Sanctuary, Seijosa  Kane Wildlife Sanctuary, Namdhapa National Park (Tiger Project), Miao  Mouling National Park, Jengging, Sessa Orchid Sanctuary, Tipi · Dihang-Debang Biosphere Reserve, Dibang Valley

The nearest airport is in Lilabari, Assam and the state doesn’t have a railway station hence the nearest railway station is Lumding railway station. There are several hotels and resorts in Arunachal Pradesh.

Sikkim is a small but one of the most beautiful places in the entire country. It is a small state with beautiful snow clad mountains, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs. There are several Buddhist monasteries in Sikkim which are worth watching. The Red Panda- a very rare and endangered species is an animal only found in Sikkim.

Gangtok is the hub from where all sightseeing starts; the capital city itself is worth touring. The list of tourist attractions in and around Gangtok is endless – museums, monasteries, the picturesque city landmarks, The Royal chapel, Gangtok Ropeway, The Deer Park, Bakthang Waterfalls, Ban Jhakri Falls, Botanical Garden etc. The Dul Dul Chorten is also a popular destination in Gangtok. It is a place of worship for Tibetan Buddhists. The Fambong Lho Wildlife Sanctuary is mind blowing; it is blessed with nature’s best flora and fauna.

 The easiest air transport is to reach Kolkata and from there take flights to Bagdogra which is 117 km from Gangtok. There are even over night trains from Kolkata which reaches New Jalpaiguri Station in the morning. It is 117 km from Gangtok. There are several hotels, lodges and resorts in the capital city