This is a continuation of a series that started with The Tortoises of the High Desert
and continued at The San Diego Wild Animal Park with Of hooves, horns and beaks.
One hopes that through the presentation of this series, some learning will take place, viewers will be entertained by the pictures, and a heightened awareness of our fragile ecosystem will be created.
Apologies are offered upfront about any poor photography.
One of the main reasons we went to the zoo was because of a poem I wrote in November, 2005, which will be included on the inside. It is one of the few poems I have written that actually use meter and a rhyme scheme. In the poem, or maybe just in myself, I was lamenting the fact that I would likely never get to see the new baby Panda, Su Lin.
It was Su Lin's third birthday on the day before we arrived. It was unknown whether we would get to see her.
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This piece is the first of four photo-essays concerning the San Diego Zoo. Ungulates and their friends will be followed by Cats and Pandas; Primates, Bears and Flashes of Color; and finally Tortoises and Trained Sea Lions.
The poem is about Su Lin's mom, Bai Yun as well. Bai Yun herself was the first successful birth of a giant panda at Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in China. Her mother, Dong Dong, currently lives in Guangzhou, and her father, Pan Pan, who is also the sire of Tian Tian (who lives at the National Zoo in DC) lives in Zunyi.
Bai Yun has given birth to Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Su Lin, Zhen Zhen, and the newest cub, Yun Zi. The last four were all fathered by Gao Gao.
Hua Mei was fathered by Shi Shi and is now herself the mother of seven in China. The gave birth to three sets of twins at Wolong and one cub at Bi Feng Xia, where she was moved after the earthquake damaged Wolong.
Mei Sheng has been relocated, first to Wolong, then after the earthquake, to Bi Feng Xia, where he may or may not be the sire of a cub born August 26. I guess paternity tests will determine this.
Shi Shi died in July of 2008 at Guangzhou Zoo.
Gao Gao, the father, was not available for viewing while we were there. Gao Gao was a wild panda who was found injured and taken to the Fengtongzhai Nature Reserve in 1993. He is presumed to be nearly 18.
That's Su Lin on the left below and Bai Yun on the right.
I wrote the following introduction on the morning of our trip to the zoo.
Below is the first graphic that I created that I called an egg. Before that my graphics were in what I call my sand painting style.
Little did I know it would eventually intersect with an actual panda...and a poem. I posted them together on Su Lin's naming day (pandas born in captivity aren't named until they are 100 days old, because of the likelihood that they will die.
The poem is a change of pace from my usual fare. And today is the day we are going to see Su Lin and her mom. :-)
Art Link
Red Panda
Su Lin
Su Lin, so they have now named you
A small bit very cute
I tried to keep from loving you
But was not resolute
If in those first one hundred days
News came that you had died
My heart surely would have broken
I would have mourned and cried
Why is it that I love you so?
A black and white furred pig
I hope I never forget you
When you get old and big
Your mother has been so gentle
She loves you as I do
I hope I soon can see you both
At the San Diego Zoo
--Robyn Elaine Serven
--November 10, 2005 |
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A bit of explanation is in order. The name of the graphic above, Red Panda, only referred to the fact that it began life as an image of a giant panda and ended up reddish purple. It was not the image of a red panda, which is an entirely different thing.
The red or lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens, or "shining cat"), is only very distantly related to the giant panda. It is more closely related to weasels, racoons, and skunks. A native of the temperate forests of the Himalayas (yes, there are such places, in Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, northern Myanmar, and China), the red panda is considered vulnerable. It is estimated there are less than 20,000 individuals, with 800+ in zoos worldwide.
A note of interest: the literal translation of the Chinese name for the red panda is firefox.
At least I found that interesting.
I took several photos of Bai Yun, who was on exhibit the entire time we were at the Panda Research Station. Photos of two of her children will come after the photos of some big cats. :-)
Assorted cats: The next four images are a false-color image of a mountain lion and a jaguar, and then a lynx and a bobcat . I have a couple of others to share in the comments, if there are any. :-) Note that it is not easy to get good photos of cats, since they were always in metal cages of one sort or another.
The mountain lion is also known as the cougar, the puma, the catamount and the panther. Although the mountain lion is also called the panther, the species is not part of the Panthera genus. The species range is from the Yukon to the Andes. It is the second heaviest cat in the western hemisphere. The species was extirpated from eastern North America, except for a small pocket in Florida. Recently, however, there have been a few sightings in Maine and Northern Michigan.
The heaviest cat in the western hemisphere is the Jaguar, which is the only member of genus Panthera which lives in the western hemisphere. The other members of that genus are lions, tigers, and leopards. The species is considered nearly threatened, with its numbers in rather rapid decline, largely because of the destruction and fragmentation of its rainforest habitat in South America. In earlier times, it was hunted for its pelt. This species is endangered in the Unites States.
We should note that all bobcats are lynxes, but not all lynxes are bobcats. (That's actually a incorrect statement, since the plural of lynx is lynx).
Lynx lynx is the Eurasian lynx native to Europe and Siberia. While these lynx are doing well world wide, they were extirpated (made locally extinct) from much of western Europe. It is now being reintroduced there.
Lynx canadensis is the Canadian lynx and what we in North America would generally mean when we called a specific cat a lynx. The Canadian lynx and the Eurasian lynx are very closely related. Some authorities even think these are two separate populations of the same species. That made me wonder if they came across the ice bridge from Siberia when humans did. Further investigation led me to that being the current conclusion.
Lynx pardinus is the Iberian lynx, sometimes called the Spanish lynx. This is a critically endangered species. The population dropped to as few as 100 last decade, down from 400 in 2000 and 4000 in 1960. A captive breeding program has begun to be successful, with 27 kittens born in captivity. They will begin being reintroduced into the wild this year. The total population of all Spanish lynx currently may be about 250.
If this species were to become extinct, it would be the first extinction of a species of big cats since the Smilodon, which went extinct 10000 years ago.
Lynx rufus is the Bobcat. The bobcat ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico. The bobcat is an evolutionary offspring of the European Lynx, having migrated over the Bering land bridge. After glaciation cut the southern part of North America off from the northern part, this population was isolated from the lynx which continued to cross. The later-arriving lynx became the Canadian lynx. This whole process started about 2.6 million years ago.
The last cat I got a pic of was labeled an Arabian Wildcat. A couple of years ago, it was classified as Felis palaestina, with a range stretching from Lebanon to Afghanistan. More recent research has revealed that it should really be the same as Felis silvestris lybica, which is also known as the African Wildcat or the Desert Cat. This species is now said to stretch from North Africa to the Steppes. This is the species which was domesticated 10000 years ago to become the Domestic Cat.
I'll finish off, first with some more photos of Su Lin. She was allowed to show off when we first arrived at the station, but soon seemed to tire of it and retreated inside. It was hot.
When we went there, Zhen Zhen was "the baby." It had just been her birthday. And she was very sleepy.
A couple of of very hot vacationers:
And a graphic:
Zoo Lin |