Giant panda Pu Pu plays at Shenyang Forest Zoo in Shenyang city, Northeast China's Liaoning province, April 25, 2018. [Photo/Ecns.cn] CHENGDU - Four years after being identified as female at birth, giant panda Pu Pu has actually been found to be male, according to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. Earlier this month, workers with the center noticed through monitors that Pu Pu, temporarily living in a zoo in the northeastern city of Shenyang, showed behavior commonly associated with male giant pandas, such as moving backward and lifting legs. The workers immediately informed the zoo, prompting the keeper at the zoo to carefully check his genital area. Everyone finally agreed that Pu Pu was male. Huang Yan, an expert with the center, said the gender of giant pandas was hard to identify because the genitals of a cub, which weighs a mere 100 grams, were not obvious. Zoologists once believed that the gender of a giant panda could only be precisely known after they reached three years old. Experienced keepers or zoologists rarely mistake the gender of giant pandas today, Huang said. Even though analysis of sex chromosome can identify the gender of animals, the method is seldom used in rare species. color-filled-wristbandrainbow silicone wristbandsdebossed-wristbandembossed-printed-wristbandrubber wristbands ebay
A black wolf is photographed for the first time in the Three-River Source National Park in Qinghai province, Nov 14, 2018. [Photo/World Wide Fund for Nature] A black wolf has been photographed for the first time in the Three-River Source National Park in Qinghai province, confirming the species' existence in China, the World Wide Fund for Nature said on Wednesday. The environmental NGO said an image taken during a waterbird survey in early October was confirmed by experts this month to include a rare black wolf. The wolf had white lips and black fur, completely different from the dark-yellow and gray fur of the common gray wolf, the WWF said. The black fur in wolves is a recessive gene, common among species in North America but rare in Asia. John Mackinnon, a retired biodiversity conservation scientist, confirmed that it was a black wolf after looking at the image. The gene is recessive, which means the black wolf gets the gene only if its parents have it, Mackinnon said. The gene is very rare, so the chance (that) both carry the gene is very small. Xie Yan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology, said the image is of great significance to the study wolf species in China. She said experts in North America and Europe have been concerned about black wolves since the 1920s, but there are few reports documenting them in China. It shows our ecology has improved, she said. Wei Baoyu, a senior manager for the WWF Wetland Project, said the NGO hopes to carry out research on black wolves in the Three-River Source National Park Administration. 24-hour-wristbandscolored rubber bands for braceletsinspirational rubber braceletssolid color silicone wristbandssilicone medical alert bracelets australia<%2fcenter>
