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Panda Tai Shan turns three

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-09 13:08

Stevens said that the program staff have geared up for the pregnancy watch that needs to collect information and data for 24 hours a day, instead of 10 hours every day at the moment.

"What is different here from the situation in China is that we depend on our volunteers," she said, adding there will be about 60 people working on the pregnancy watch program in addition to more than 100 on the interpreter program.

"Tian Tian is the restless one, taking food quickly. Mei Xiang has a good deal of lying back. Tai Shan, like his dad, is very playful," said Jim Beard, a retired engineer who became a volunteer to watch pandas in December 2000.

"As an observer, you have to watch them very intensely. Get to know them as old friends although we do not integrate with them," he said.

The arrival of pandas in the United States coincided with the beginning of normalization of US-China diplomatic relations in 1972. Ling Ling and Xing Xing brought their charms and Chinese hospitality to the national zoo, where they were welcomed and visited by generations of Americans.

The news reports about their immigration to the US and the self-made greeting cards children sent to them are still displayed in the panda museum of the zoo.

Currently, there are four pairs and four panda cubs in the US, living in the National Zoo, San Diego Zoo, Atlanta Zoo and Memphis Zoo.

Recently, a strong earthquake in Sichuan province, China, resulted in tens of thousands of casualties as well as the destruction of the panda reservation center in Wolong, not only straining Chinese nerves but also those of Americans.

Apart from the millions of US dollars the US government, the Red Cross and other groups has donated to Chinese earthquake victims, American panda lovers also reached out their hands to Chinese pandas.

The American Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Giant Panda Conservation Foundation coordinated several US zoos in organizing relief fund-raising efforts, donating $165,000 to the China Wildlife Conservation Association of the State Forestry Administration to help reconstruct nature reserves for the treasured Chinese animal.

"We saw very good examples in Wolong, Sichuan, where many staff members stayed with their pandas, caring for pandas through the catastrophic disaster," Stevens said.

Recalling her trip to Wolong last September, she said "it was very sad to see facilities destroyed," but she also believes "the incredible programs there" would be rebuilt and become even better.

Mabel Lam, the China program liaison officer of the national zoo, also said in an email to Xinhua that China has done a great job in rebuilding the lives of the earthquake victims and rescuing pandas as well as surveying the destroyed habitat to see what needs to be done to restore homes for pandas.

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