Canada was during a lather Monday morning as two pandas that had been FedExed from China to the Toronto Zoo finally arrived within the country. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen were there to greet Er Shun and Da Mao, a scheduling decision that has everything to try to to with the bears being a present from the Chinese government, and not a thing to try to to with the event being an ideal photo opportunity which will lead all evening newscasts during which grinning anchors will ask "panda-monium" as they die a touch on the within .
While the state breathlessly awaits the bears' unveiling, here are a couple of belongings you got to realize the weird and dark side of pandas:
1 / they're an species that's terrible at sex but likes pornography. There could also be fewer than 2,000 giant pandas left on the earth within the wild and in captivity, but getting them to breed in captivity has become something of a bedroom farce. The females only enter heat once a year, a while within the spring, and are only fertile for 3 days at the most . If you simply need to roll in the hay once a year during an indeterminate few days, you would be lousy at it too. Last year, a mating pair loaned by China to the Edinburgh Zoo were so clumsy that a zookeeper was required to succeed in in-between the bears with an extended pole and move the female's tail out of the way. Sexy.
Typically, researchers blame the females. (They'd tried giving Viagra to the males which didn't work.) The suspicion is that lady pandas lose their desire in captivity, so this year the keepers at China's main panda breeding and research facility showed one mating pair a video of pandas doing it within the wild. And it worked! The porn led the pair to copulate twice. We still do not know if the feminine actually got pregnant, but we do know pandas dig hard-core.
2 / they're expensive to stay in zoos. consistent with a 2006 ny Times article, pandas cost five times the maximum amount because the next costliest animal to be kept during a zoo. they're shy animals that need custom-built shelters, extra handlers and mammoth amounts of bamboo, which is dear to import and to grow in North America. FedEx features a deal to ship 900 pounds of bamboo per week to the Toronto Zoo during the pandas' stay. (Er Shun and Da Mao are going to be shipped to Calgary after five years for the last half of their 10-year visit.)
And then there are the fees the Chinese government charges for what's essentially an animal-rental service. the days says the standard 10-year contract for a mating pair costs $ 1-million (U.S.) a year. Zoos can calculate big increases in visitor traffic once they get pandas, but the traffic can dwindle over the course of a 10-year deal. Unless, of course, the pandas manage to possess offspring, which may be an enormous draw and rekindle interest. But, again consistent with the days , the rental fees automatically go up by the maximum amount as $ 600,000 a year when a pair features a cub.
3 / They're cute as hell, but they'll not be worth breeding in captivity. it isn't a well-liked opinion, especially since the panda is that the official mascot of the powerful World Wildlife Fund and a universal symbol of conservation, but a minimum of one person thinks breeding the bears in captivity isn't well worth the millions it costs. Pandas are in peril because their natural habitat, bamboo forests, is disappearing. A British television program host made the argument in 2008 that there is no point breeding so-called "celebrity animals" if their habitat not exists, especially when it's done at the expense of less trendy species. "I reckon we should always pull the plug," said Chris Packham. allow them to accompany a degree of dignity.
"The panda is possibly one among the grossest wastes of conservation money within the second half century," Packham argued.
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