Have a very Happy Birthday, Suzanne!    

(July 28) -- Chinese police have detained a man in connection with the gas poisoning death of Quan Quan, revered as "the heroic mother" zoo panda who had given birth to seven cubs.

The 48-year-old man, identified only by his surname Yang, had hired workers to disinfect a former air raid shelter he had leased to grow mushrooms, the state news agency Xinhua reported today.

The shelter was near the Jinan Zoo's panda house in eastern Shandong Province, and toxic gas used by the workers leaked through an air pipe used to cool the pandas, fatally poisoning Quan Quan.

Quan Quan was 21 years old, the equivalent of more than 70 in human terms, the agency said. Once she became ill after inhaling carbon monoxide and chlorine she was taken to a hospital, but died Thursday after three hours of emergency treatment.

According to a spokeswoman for the local civil air defense office, which owns the shelter, it was not aware that the air pipe existed because it "was not included in the facility's design paper."

The pipe was installed in 1995 to help keep the pandas cool, a zoo spokesman told Xinhua.

Quan Quan is the second panda to die at Jinan in the last two years, according to a Los Angeles Times report from Beijing, which said animal welfare advocates see her death as a result of the lack of laws in China on how animals should be kept in zoos.

Pandas are among the world's most endangered species and are revered in China as a national symbol.

But according to Kat Loeffler, a veterinary adviser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, pandas have died in captivity because of malnutrition, stress and poor veterinary treatment, the Times reported.

"These pandas are being bred for a life in captivity," Loeffler was quoted as saying. "Why are they being bred? Just so they can circulate through zoos and live next to old air raid shelters?"

Many of China's zoos are poorly managed or have insufficient funding, and animal deaths are common, Agence France-Presse said, citing Chinese state media reports. But because pandas are so rare, and revered, the agency said special attention was usually given to their welfare.

The death of Quan Quan, who was born at a breeding center in Sichuan Province, was described as "an extraordinary case and looks like an accident," according to Chang Jiwen, a scholar with the Institute of Law under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

But those responsible for drilling the air pipe should be held to account, and the Jinan Zoo management should take responsibility, he told Xinhua.

                     

Fantastic pics of food exchange!  Thanks, Suzanne!  

                  BONNE FETE, NICOLE!!!    

http://usera.imagecave.com/Argoyle19/Rochester.JPG


I think I got most of the important landmarks labeled properly.

Thanks, Argoyle!

In early July we brought you news of the Great Sea Turtle Relocation–an ambitious plan dreamed up by conservationists to scoop up some 70,000 sea turtle eggs from Gulf Coast beaches, to prevent the hatchlings from crawling straight into oil-fouled waters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that the plan carried considerable risks to the unborn turtles, but said it was the best chance of preventing the die-off an entire generation.

Now the update: Over the past week, the plan has gone into action, and baby turtles are now swimming free in the Atlantic Ocean. But some experts question whether the launched turtles have a chance.

On Alabama and Florida beaches workers are carefully digging up nests, marking the eggs with “this end up� symbols, and packing them in styrofoam coolers for the truck ride to a Kennedy Space Center warehouse. The eggs belong mostly to threatened loggerheads, along with some endangered green, leatherback, and Kemp’s ridley turtles.

The first batch of turtles gave the project managers cause for optimism, according to Jane A. Provancha, a contractor working in the warehouse:

On Saturday and Monday evenings, she released 56 baby turtles into the dark waters of the Atlantic and watched them swim away. Turtles from about 83% of the eggs in the first nest have emerged and swum out to sea, she said. “They looked really great. They were a little slow at first, but then they started moving around,� she said. [Los Angeles Times]

But some experts are worried that these newly released hatchlings will run into navigation trouble. Marine biologist Ken Lohmann notes that these baby turtles typically take their first swims in the Gulf of Mexico, but instead they’re being released into the Atlantic from Florida’s east coast. That may be enough to scramble their navigational systems and interfere with their normal migratory routes.

His view is backed up by evidence that suggests turtles are programmed from birth to follow a specific migratory path once in water. Indeed, turtles from different nesting sites seem to inherit different sets of navigational instructions. And that means a turtle born in the Gulf but displaced to the Atlantic coast may follow the wrong path out to the open ocean, Lohmann says.

What a beautiful Butterfly to have in your garden, Aafke!  Thanks for posting the picture!

Have a very Happy Birthday, Shaky! Thanks for all you do!   

No word on Warrior yet. I'll keep an open mind with a heavy  . Hope she's doing OK.

I know-I look every day looking for something posted about her.

I had to test the calendar too.

It worked.  Coincidence that his birthday is two days before yours?  I think not!   

Tester's birthday has nothing to do with mine. It's tied to a much more significant event in history.

first walk on the moon!  

Lots of people cant get it. .it's not you or the computer.

I got it and I loved it!  Thanks for posting!   

Jeanne-I should have added to my post how great it was seeing you again and how much I enjoyed talking with you!  Hope to get together for some watching again soon! (I think we got to see some back streets of Rochester that people never knew existed in our trying to get to that darn Planetarium)   

To "alien Joyce" and all other locals - Bill and I had a really nice time on Saturday-seeing watchers that we had met before and meeting so many new people that I only knew by name on the Forum.  We tried fifty ways to Sunday (our GPS was going crazy rerouting us) to get to the Planetarium for the movie and ran into police barricades everywhere!  We got so frustrated that we ended up going home earlier than we had anticipated.  We watched TV that night to see what was going on and found out that it was the annual Pride parade that prevented us from getting through. Unfortunately, we couldn't attend on Sunday due to a prior commitment but we want to thank all of you for all that you do. 

Kathy O. sent an email last night about a show at the Strasenburgh Planetarium this weekend titled "The Falcons of Toronto."  It will be showing at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday July 17.  Here is the describition from the Planetarium's website.

THE FALCONS OF TORONTO
Thirty years ago, peregrine falcons faced extinction in North America when DDT entered the food chain and killed their young. Now these champions of the sky have re-established themselves and some have forsaken the countryside to live in the city. These intrepid newcomers nest on cliffs of concrete and hunt in canyons of steel and glass. But while the city is a good provider, there are also hidden dangers in the urban jungle. An NHK Production


I will be attending the Saturday show, if anyone else wants to go, just let me know.
Tickets are:  $10 for adults,  $9 for senior citizens, and $8 for children.

Lisa McK.

MAK and Sue want to go

Bill and I want to go too. Can we buy tickets there that night or is it better to buy online now?

I am planning on buying tickets at the door.  I don't think it will be a "sold out" show.   She everyone tomorrow morning.

Lisa McK.

Oh Lisa!  Ya never know!  It might be this weekend's surprise hit at the box office!