Tag Archives: Travel

Spring Intern Arrives Just in Time

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How Could You Pass Up a Chance to Work With These Guys?

How Could You Pass Up a Chance to Work With These Guys?

Just as our Spring intern, Stephanie McMahon arrived, the majority of the Bifeng Xia pandas have decided that they would begin breeding. The much needed assistance that Stephanie is providing will help to collect important behavioral data. It’s a job that requires you to wake early and stay late. So we sincerely appreciate all her hard work.

We still have positions available for the Summer and Fall, so check out our intern application by clicking on the below link and we hope to hear from you soon.

Panda Intern Info & Application-

Surprising Mercury Concentrations in Pandas

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IMG_9760Thanks to the Xinbin lab of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for analyzing our samples in record time. The results of the analysis completely surprised us. Every sample was nearly ten times lower than the World Health Organizations recommended limit.

This great news sparked us to take a further look as to why the levels are so low. At first glance, as was previously thought, the pandas are eating bamboo covered in deposited soot from a smog covered sky. You can rub your fingers over the bamboo and they come off black. What we discovered next explained the pandas clean bill of health.

I will reveal their secret in a future post as we get closer to writing up the results.

A Visit from Dr. David Shepherdson

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Meghan & David Geeking Out on a Sidewalk in Chengdu, China

Meghan & David Geeking Out on a Sidewalk in Chengdu, China

As an advisor for Meghan’s PhD panda project, it was an extreme delight to spend a few days with David touring the facilities here in Sichuan, China. David is an extremely knowledgeable scientist and quite the accomplished traveller given his ability to handle a 16 hr. time difference with little effort.

David works as a Conservation Program Scientist for the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon. In order for him to make the trip to China, he had to endure 18 hours of flights covering 7000 miles. We sincerely appreciate him for taking the time to visit.

 

The New Wolong & Dujiangyan Panda Facilities

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All image taken by my Canon 60d

All images taken by my Canon 60d

After the partial destruction of the Wolong panda center during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, plans were laid out to build a new facility a few kilometers away. Additionally, a disease control center was to be built closer to Chengdu.

It has now been five years since the earthquake and with a substantial donated amount of ~$500,000,000 USD, the two facilities are nearly complete. We were allowed inside both locations for a brief tour. Continue reading →