Finding China's Lost Pandas- Science News

A new kind of survey of Giant Pandas in China's Wanglang Nature Reserve has brought some welcome news for conservationists trying to save the endangered species. The census (a collaboration between Chinese and Welsh scientists) used molecular technology to assess panda numbers in the mountainous reserve.

Because pandas are wary of people and difficult to see in their forested habitat, surveys are forced to rely on indirect measuring methods, such as collecting dung samples. Previous surveys have differentiated between individuals by looking at the size of pieces of bamboo in the samples- pandas with bigger bite sizes, void bigger pieces of bamboo in their dung. The obvious draw back of this method is that it is hard to distinguish between 2 similarly sized pandas. The new survey, conducted by Xiangjiang Zhan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues, analysed DNA from the samples, instead and so gave a much more accurate estimate of the panda population. The last survey, conducted in 1998, estimated that there were just 27 pandas left in the 28,000 hectare (68,500 acre) nature reserve, but the new study puts the true figure much higher, at 66. Since the new figure was generated by a more accurate method, scientists think it likely that when this method is used to survey the pandas in China's other wildlife reserves, the figure for the total panda population will, be almost doubled from 1,596 to between 2,500 and 3,000.

Xiangjiang Zhan and co-workers' Panda census was published in "Current Biology" (Vol. 16, No 12).

WEIRDBEAUTIFUL BLOG CONTENTS PAGE

Hi. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.As it says in the title banner, this blog is about the Weird and wonderful natural world. Weirdbeautiful is a mixture of nature photos, quotes and short and longer articles on nature, interviews and links to content elsewhere on the web. There are quite a few things scattered about Weirdbeautiful now, so please have a look around. If you scroll down, you can find a blog archive with a list of the titles of all my posts - this is about half-way down the page on the right hand side; alternatively, this post is a (very incomplete) summary of some of the contents of this blog.

Pictures-
>. "Cheering- up birds"
SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION- LINKS TO BE ADDED HERE

. "Quote of the week" (often with pictures)
Quote of the week- Albert Einstein (with "storm brewing" picture)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/quote-of-week-albert-einstein-natures.html

Quote of the week- Author unknown-((with "Craterscape" picture of Mount Etna)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/06/quote-of-week-human-spirit-needs-places.html

Quote of the week- H P Lovecraft. (with Komodo dragon picture)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/06/quote-of-week-h-p-lovecraft-joy-of.html


SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION- LINKS TO BE ADDED HERE

Articles and Longer Content
. “Diary of a nomadic naturalist”-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2009/10/diary-of-nomadic-naturalist-october.html

"Flashing butterflies" -(article on butterfly colouration)-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2009/09/flashing-butterflies-science-in-plain.html

Interview with particle physicist Dr Jeanne Wilson -
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2009/09/ask-particle-physicist-with-dr-jeanne.html

“Travel, Art, Science and “Rock in the Landscape”
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/travel-art-science-and-rock-in.html

. Some of my written articles are available free elsewhere online, but, for various contractual reasons, I can’t reproduce them on this blog. One of these is a diary piece called “A week in the life of a wildlife writer” -
http://scienceray.com/philosophy-of-science/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-wildlife-writer

There are also some articles of mine available free online at e-zinearticles.com- they include an interview with butterfly expert Zsolt Balint and articles on chimpanzee research, pandas, bees, bacteria and the Edelweiss- a list of them can be found on this blog here-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2009/10/articles-online.html

. List of articles by V Neblik available free online -
http://www.victorianeblik.com/page3.htm

Longer articles by title/theme
. "Sometimes, when a Mummy polar bear and a Daddy grizzly bear love each other Very much"... - (article on hybrid animals and review of recent and older tv programmes on likely biology of extra-terrestrial life)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/sometimes-when-mummy-polar-bear-and.html

. "Horseshoe crabs and the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico" (article on horseshoe crabs also update on recent big science story- the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/horseshoe-crabs-and-oil-spill-in-gulf.html

. "Emperor Tamarins, Chimpanzee grief and Pollen Grains"
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/04/emperor-tamarins-chimpanzee-grief-and.html

. "Science update" (the ongoing story about the drug mephedrone and related deaths, the media's coverage of it and the toxicology)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/04/science-update-mephedrone-plant-food.html

. "Art is art and science is science and never the twain shall meet" ( the perceived split between art and sciences and the state of the so-called "third culture", 80 years after the idea was first suggested)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/04/art-is-art-and-science-is-science-and.html

. "Promicuous females and why they are useful" - (update and comments on recent scientific research)
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/03/science-update-promiscuous-females-and.html

. “Travel, Art, Science and “Rock in the Landscape” (the role of travel in scientific research and discovery and the book "Rock in the Landscape")
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/travel-art-science-and-rock-in.html


Links
. “Link of the day/ link of the week”- (links to striking wildlife or nature photos, pet care articles and science news stories)-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-recommended-articles-pet-care.html

Link of the day- Jupiter, Comets, Clouds seen from space and baby turtle
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/06/link-of-day-jupiter-commets-cloud.html

Link of the week- Acupuncture and adenosine
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/06/link-of-week-acupuncture-and-adenosine.html

Link of the week- “The umbilical cord, its stem cells and why 4 kidneys are better than 2”
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/links-of-week-umbilical-cord-its-stem.html


links to images by others-
SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION -LINKS TO GO HERE

Koala pictures -
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/link-of-day-koala-picture.html

Cockchafer beetles and hydrangea pictures - http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/05/cockchafers-and-hydrangeas-links-of-day.html

The Weirdbeauty of Seaslugs- http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/06/hi.html