Wild about Pandas T.V. Pogramme.

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Produced by Scottish T.V. and featuring the build up and arrival of Edinburgh's Panda pair. Well made IMO. The best thing for me was the amount of footage featuring the Chinese Panda projects.

A couple of queries I had arising from it though;

1. What will they do with all the humanised partially handraised Panda cubs they have produced in recent years by taking them away from their mothers very early, or artificially raising one of twin births. Have they room to keep them all in captivity as they are obviously not suitable for release?

2. Now they are planning future reintroductions of 4 captive born, but naturally raised(to two years old) cubs into the wild, is there sufficient suitable habitat for this method to be used on a bigger scale in the future?
 
I don't know the answers to your questions but I also enjoyed the programme, I found the footage of the young pandas definitely had the "awwww" factor. I quite liked the shots of the zoo as well.
 
I thought this was a great programme! With regards to the amount of suitable habitat available i think they are probably just waiting to see if their introductions work. If they do then they may consider other sites around the region to release pandas in the future.
 
I liked it (apart from the bagpipes :eek: but that's just a personal thing).

Credit to the producers for not overplaying the cuddly baby pandas business. I can't help thinking that the current spate of zoo panda placements is linked to the undoubted success of the breeding & rearing program in China. In theory this will provide finance as well as reducing the pressure on the facilities in China.
The reintroduction program is interesting, but it will need a lot of fieldwork to answer questions like the one Pertinax asks about the capacity and security of their habitat.

Alan
 
I haven't seen the programme yet, but wouldn't recommend anyone examining the Edinburgh sequences too closely. :o
 
I can't help thinking that the current spate of zoo panda placements is linked to the undoubted success of the breeding & rearing program in China.

That occurred to me too! Edinburgh, Beauval and now I think Canada too, in 2013?
 
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Who you callin' a wally?! ;)

:rolleyes:

We all have our fifteen minutes of fame - my 15 minutes was in the background of Wish You Were Here when I was a child :p

But I digress, the programme was excellent and I'm looking forward to visiting Edinburgh again, not necessarily just for the pandas but all of the other establishing shots of the zoo used gave me a longing to want to visit again :)
 
Don't visit for the pandas, you're likely to be disappointed, but do visit for the rest of the zoo, which has some really good exhibits and lots of unusual animals. The fact that you can spend another ten minutes looking at giant pandas is just a bonus.
 
Don't visit for the pandas, you're likely to be disappointed, but do visit for the rest of the zoo, which has some really good exhibits and lots of unusual animals. The fact that you can spend another ten minutes looking at giant pandas is just a bonus.

Exactly - my first and so far only visit to Edinburgh was a quick one en-route to St. Andrews, so missed a lot. Add to that all of the new stuff and I could have an interesting day with the pandas as a bonus :)
 
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