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Roaming panda 'might be hunting for Mr Right'
CHENGDU: The giant panda found roaming the streets of a city in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday may have been hunting for her "Mr Right," experts said yesterday. "She weighs 60 kilograms and is between four and five years old - an age when most pandas have reached puberty," said Li Desheng, a zoologist with the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre in Sichuan.
A preliminary check-up at the Wolong centre found the panda is suffering from liver and kidney problems and has injuries to her paws. Blood tests were being carried out yesterday to further clarify the panda's condition. According to Li the panda had not eaten since being captured even though fresh bamboo leaves and glucose had been specially prepared for her. "She's obviously been scared by the adventure, but she's also probably not feeling very well." She is currently under 24-hour intensive care and many people have called the centre to ask about her situation, he added. Li said the panda had probably not deliberately headed into the city. "She might have fallen into the river while looking for habitat and then been washed all the way into the city." Researchers are collecting evidence from witnesses to try and find out where the panda came from. The bear was seen nimbly climbing a 3-metre fence and then entering a housing estate in the early hours of Saturday morning and was almost mistaken for a "burglar." She played hide-and-seek with her pursuers for several hours, jumping from roof to roof in an amazingly agile manner, totally unlike her lethargic relatives in the zoo. After evading initial attempts to catch her, the panda was spotted again in the local Zoumahe River later on Saturday morning. "I got up at 6:40 am to go jogging as usual, and heard someone yelling that a panda was in the river," said Wang Pingxi, a citizen who works for the local economic and trade bureau. "She was a good swimmer I must say - leisurely and expertly doing the front crawl." Wang said he and many other by-standers wanted to help the panda out. "But the water ran so fast that she swam downstream before we could do anything. I didn't think she would manage to get ashore by herself. She's so cute." After being carried 2 kilometres down stream, the panda grasped a branch overhanging the river and climbed up the tree to rest. At 10:00 am, an anaesthetist used a rifle to put the panda to sleep. Firemen then climbed the tree and carried the panda down. A local official said mountains around the city of Dujiangyan are a major habitat for giant pandas. "In 1999, local citizens carried an injured panda to the city government compound to seek first-aid," said Huang Anping, a publicity official with the city government. Huang said panda droppings were found close to Zhaogongshan Mountain in the city's suburbs in March, but it was very rare for the animals to intrude into cities. Experts say giant panda live in mountain forests with dense stands of bamboo, at between 2,700 and 3,900 metres, but descend as low as 800 metres in winter. They shelter in hollow trees, rock crevasses and caves but have no permanent dens. They live mostly on the ground but are good tree climbers. According to the World Wildlife Fund, by mid-2005, the Chinese Government had established more than 50 panda reserves, protecting more than 10,400 square kilometres.
(China Daily 07/19/2005 page2)
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