DeviantlyD
Posts: 4375
Joined: 5/26/2007 From: Hawai`i Status: offline
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A few days ago I watched a program on Animal Planet about the panda bear. The focus was on a place in China that has worked at increasing the panda population through artificial insemination of female pandas in captivity. Seeing the cages they are kept in was very disheartening. I realize the scientists working with these animals are trying to do their best, but I just wish these animals had more natural surroundings and some outdoor space. All of that aside, the show provided some interesting moments. For instance, a pregnant and pseudo-pregnant female share the same hormone profile, which makes it next to impossible to determine if a female is pregnant. While watching this I couldn't help think "couldn't they feel the uterus to see if there's something there?" I had thought of ultrasound...but seriously, doing ultrasound on a bear? I suppose it's possible, I just didn't know. And then I found out why an external probe of the uterus would be pointless: a panda's poop is probably bigger than the size of a newborn panda. They are tiny! The newborns that is. They are little pink things with eyes shut and no fur. But the fuzz grows in pretty quickly and in a few weeks they look more like what we would expect a baby panda to look like. So...after all the panda viewing, I started looking at panda stuff online...feelling some panda love and all. ;) Then I was reminded that the panda is the symbol for the World Wildlife Fund. So I went over to that web site and I stumbled across this. It is such a cool feature! And a nifty way to learn something about the world. Check it out. :)
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