The Mature Panda

Bai Yun will be 15 years old on September 7. She will not really notice as her birthday passes; she will be busily engrossed in her daily routine of feeding and caring for herself and her yearling cub, Su Lin. But this time next year will she be caring for another newborn cub?

The oldest giant panda at Wolong to ever give birth was Jia Jia. That old girl was born in 1978, but gave birth to twins in 1996 at the age of 18. Several other female pandas in Wolong have given birth in their late teens, females like “Number One,” who gave birth to triplets in 1999 at the age of 16. As such, there is no reason to expect that Bai Yun won’t continue to be fertile for another year or two.

It seems common that the female panda senesces at about age 17 or 18. At this point they cease to give birth successfully, although they may continue to have an estrus in the spring and may even breed. Within a year or two, however, their estrus cycle will cease to be evident and the bears will no longer show interest in breeding.

The bears can still live long lives beyond their senescence. For those of you with an itch to travel, you can still visit Jia Jia at her residence in Hong Kong’s Ocean Park; she’s now 28 years of age! As far as males go, our own Shi Shi was estimated to have been born in the wild in the late 1970s, and so may be as old or older than Jia Jia. The National Zoo’s first male panda, Hsing Hsing, died at age 28. Bai Yun certainly has many happy years ahead of her.

How much longer will she be able to produce cubs? This is a bit of an unknown. Unlike most pandas in Chinese facilities, Bai Yun has never given birth in consecutive years. We will have to see if this management regime has an impact on her fertility as she ages. It is possible that a less demanding birthing schedule may result in a longer period of fertility. It’s also possible that the timing of senescence in the female panda may be hardwired and is not affected by how many pregnancies she sustains or cubs she gives birth to. Here is yet another opportunity for Bai Yun to inform us about another aspect of panda life… we’ll just have to wait a few years before she reveals the answer!

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of the Applied Animal Ecology Division/CRES.

Watch Bai Yun and our other pandas on Panda Cam.

Conservation News

Zoological Society of San Diego's Highest Honor Goes to
Three Conservationists

In 2006, the Zoological Society of San Diego's prestigious Conservation Medal will be awarded to three conservation luminaries. William Burnham, Ph.D and Tom J. Cade, Ph.D, renowned as early champions for endangered species with the not-for-profit The Peregrine Fund, and Paxson "Packy" H. Offield, a celebrated conservation philanthropist, will all be honored December 7 at the Zoological Society's President's Associates Holiday Dinner.

Dr. Cade was one of a group of scientists searching for reasons why the peregrine falcon was suffering catastrophic population declines in the late 1960s. This group found a link between exposure to DDT, a common pesticide, and the thickness and viability of the falcon's eggshells, a link that was instrumental in exposing environmental causes contributing to species decline. As a professor at Cornell University, he started The Peregrine Fund to develop techniques that could bring the species back from the edge of extinction, including captive breeding, species reintroduction, as well as educating the public to the plight of these birds of prey.

In 1974, Dr. Burnham joined The Peregrine Fund, developing and managing the Fund's western program for peregrine falcon restoration. Three years later, his work earned him a place on the Fund's board of directors and he has been the leader of the organization since 1984, supervising and directing its World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.

The peregrine falcon was one of the first species listed as endangered when the Endangered Species Act came into existence in 1974. In 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially removed the peregrine falcon from the endangered species list, due in large part to the work of The Peregrine Fund. Since that time the mission of the Fund, and these two men, has expanded to over 24 species of birds of prey and almost a dozen non-raptor species.

Paxson "Packy" H. Offield is another important figure in endangered species conservation. He is a long-time supporter of the conservation work of the Zoological Society of San Diego through the Offield Family Foundation and has supported numerous grants for conservation scientists at the Zoological Society's center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES). Mr. Offield also serves on the board of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, and has been chairman of the board for The Peregrine Fund while providing financial support for the Fund's conservation of gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon species. He also has supported Bat Conservation International and the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. His lifelong interest in marine ecology led him to endow the Paxson H. Offield Professor of Fisheries Ecology position at the University of Southern California. Mr. Offield continues to offer financial and advisory support for numerous conservation projects, and his generosity and commitment have helped the Zoological Society achieve vital conservation goals.

The Zoological Society of San Diego's Conservation Medal was first presented in 1966 during the Society's golden anniversary celebration. Since that time, more than 50 medals have been awarded to an impressive international array of conservationists. Past recipients of the Conservation Medal include Jane Goodall, Gilbert M. Grosvenor, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh, Sir David Attenborough, and E. O. Wilson. The Conservation Medal is awarded annually by the Zoological Society's Board of Trustees to people who have significantly increased knowledge of wildlife habitats, played an active role in endangered species preservation through breeding programs, research, and the establishment of wildlife preserves, or furthered the cause of conservation through financial support, influence, or publicity.

G.R.O.W ?? What's that ?

GROW is a programme run by Wild-Expeditions that provides highly personal, specialist training across a broad range of biological research topics. The expeditions last for four weeks and take place in exotic locations in Mexico. As a student you will receive specialist training by experienced researchers in the field. You will work within the framework of on-going scientific projects and subsequently will be given the opportunity to conduct your own research project. Ultimately you will gain first hand research experience and tuition, an educational qualification and the support needed to help you publish your work in scientific journals.

"The unique experience provided by Wild-Expeditions allows young scientists to launch a career in research whilst learning of new countries and cultures and conducting projects that further our knowledge of valuable environments."

Ideology and methodology

Bioethicists often focus on using philosophy to help analyze issues, and philosophical bioethicists such as Peter Singer tend to treat the field as a branch of moral or ethical philosophy. However, this approach is sometimes challenged, and bioethics is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Many bioethicists come from backgrounds outside of academic philosophy, and some even claim that the methods of analytic philosophy have had a negative effect on the field's development.

Religious bioethicists have developed rules and guidelines on how to deal with these issues from within the viewpoint of their respective faiths. Some Western secular bioethicists are critical of the fact that these are usually religious scholars without an academic degree or training in disciplines that pertain to the issues, such as philosophy (wherein the formal study of ethics is usually found), biology or medicine.
Many religious bioethicists are Jewish or Christian scholars. However a growing number of religious scholars from other religions have become involved in this field as well. Islamic clerics have begun to write on this topic. Muslim bioethicists include Abdulaziz Sachedina, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. There has been some criticism by liberal Muslims that only the more religiously conservative voices in Islam are being heard on this issue.

In the case of most non-Western cultures a strict separation of religion from philosophy does not exist. In many Asian cultures, there is a lively (and often less dogmatic, but more pragmatic) discussion on bioethical issues. The discussion often refers to common demographic policies which are criticised, as in the case of China. Buddhist bioethics, in general, is characterised by a naturalistic outlook that leads to a rationalistic, pragmatic approach. Buddhist bioethicists include Damien Keown. In Africa, and partly also in Latin America, the debate on bioethics frequently focus on its practical relevance in the context of underdevelopment and (national or global) power relations.

Bioethics ??

Bioethics concerns the ethical questions that arise in the relationships between biology, medicine, cybernetics, politics, law, philosophy, and theology. Disagreement exists about the proper scope for the application of ethical evaluation to questions involving biology. Some bioethicists would narrow ethical evaluation only to the morality of medical treatments or technological innovations, and the timing of medical treatment of humans. Other bioethicists would broaden the scope of ethical evaluation to include the morality of all actions that might help or harm organisms capable of feeling fear and pain.

Bioethics involves many public policy questions that are sometimes politicized and used to mobilize political constituencies, hence the emergence of biopolitics and its techno-progressive/bioconservative branches. For this reason, some biologists and others involved in the development of technology have come to see any mention of "bioethics" as an attempt to derail their work and react to it as such, regardless of the true intent. Some biologists can be inclined to this line of thought, as they see their work as inherently ethical, and attacks on it as misguided.

the next be ideology of biothics..

Environmental ethics

Environmental ethics considers the ethical relationship between human beings and the natural environment. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including law, sociology, theology, economics and geography. There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the environment. For example:

Should we continue to clear cut the forests for the sake of human consumption?

Should we continue to make gasoline powered vehicles, depleting fossil fuel resources while the technology exists to create zero-emission vehicles?

What environmental obligations do we need to keep for future generations?
Is it right for humans to knowingly cause the extinction of a species for the (perceived or real) convenience of humanity?

Environmental ethics is properly but a sub-section of environmental philosophy, which includes environmental aesthetics, environmental theology, and indeed all the branches of philosophical investigation (e.g., epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, etc).

The academic field of environmental ethics grew up in response to the work of scientists such as Rachel Carson and events such as the first Earth Day in 1970, when environmentalists started urging philosophers to consider the philosophical aspects of environmental problems. Two papers published in Science had a crucial impact: Lynn White's "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis" (March 1967)[1] and Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" (December 1968).[2] Also influential was an essay in Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, "The Land Ethic," in which Leopold explicitly claimed that the roots of the ecological crisis were philosophical (1949).[3]

In the Journal of Applied Philosophy Alan Marshall writes of a natural ecological balance between the animate (living entities) and the inanimate (non-living entities) that existed for centuries (1993).[4] For Marshall however, the rapid industrialization of the last 300 years has led to a major imbalance. Today growing concerns about global warming underline the general acceptance that environmental preservation is of vital importance. However, it is the grounds upon which one justifies the argument for or against preservation that is the subject of ethical debate, and this invariably includes a personal stance on non-human animal and non-animal rights.

There have been many attempts to categorize the different attempts to justify the importance of the preservation of the environment. Alan Marshall and Michael Smith are two recent examples of this, as cited by Peter Vardy in "The Puzzle of Ethics".

For Marshall, three ethical approaches have emerged over the last 20 years; the Libertarian Extension, the Ecologic Extension and Conservation Ethics.

Get the info below..

1 Libertarian extension
2 Ecologic extension
3 Conservation ethics

Monetary value

Monetary value for what?? money ? income ? or else..

While it is difficult to establish the net value of a species, it can be estimated.

The Amazon Rainforest is a well known biodiversity hotspot.

In Cape Province, South Africa the native vegetation of the area is the fynbos, a type of shrub. The fynbos are able to survive long periods of drought, periodic fires, and poor soil conditions; the plants are harvested annually with annual a yield of about $19 billion. Recently exotic plants have threatened the endemic fynbos. The new plants grow larger; increasing the severity of periodic fires. More importantly they transpire more water; reducing the local streams to half their normal water flow.

Removing the exotic species will cost between $140 US and $830 US per hectare and $8 US per hectare to maintain every year after. Alternatively, a sewage purification plant would cost $135 million US to build and $2.6 million US per year to maintain. Desalination of surrounding coastal waters would cost four times as much.

Importance of conservation

Extinction of a species is an irreversible act. Once gone, an exterminated species represents a lost resource of unknown value. While the net value of any one species is virtually impossible to represent in pure numerical or monetary figures, individual reasons for conservation can be demonstrated.

The Indianapolis Prize is the world's leading award for animal conservation. The Indianapolis Prize includes a US$100,000 cash award and the Lilly Medal, which are presented every two years to a conservationist who has made substantial contributions toward the sustainability of an animal species or group of species. Selected by a globally-renowned nominating committee and jury, the finalists for the 2006 Indianapolis Prize include Dr. George Archibald (cranes); Dr. Holly Dublin (African elephants and other IUCN-listed species); Dr. Iain Douglas Hamilton (African elephants); Dr. David Meche (wolves); Dr. Roger Payne (whales and other cetaceans); and Dr. Simon Stuart (amphibians). Award-winning actress Jane Alexander is the host of the 2006 Indianapolis Prize Gala. Honorary Chairs include Harrison Ford, Ted Turner, Roger Sant, Senator Richard Lugar, and Senator Evan Bayh.

Ehmm...what u think about this ??

Conservation biology

Conservation biology, or conservation ecology, is the protection and management of biodiversity that uses principles and experiences from the biological sciences, from natural resource management, and from the social sciences, including economics. Put another way, conservation biology is the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity. Much of conservation ecology deals with the problems associated with the small population sizes of rare species.

The term "conservation biology" refers to the science and sometimes is used to encompass also the application of this science, that is, the conservation of genetic diversity, species and populations. It also includes saving and restoration of ecosystems and habitats.

The concern of this branch of biology is to help save the diversity of life on Earth through applied conservation research. In the realm of research, biologists seek creative and effective ways to address a wide diversity of ecological problems, ranging from endangered species to regional conservation planning. This translates to developing better conservation tools, analyses, and techniques.

The terms ecology and conservation are frequently used interchangeably, although not all ecologists are conservationists.

One theoretical tool useful in conservation biology is the Unified neutral theory of biodiversity.

I got this from wikipedia.com..

Fionkiro kembali lagi !!

apa kabar...nama saya fionkiro..hahaha!!

blog ini tentang biologi pemuliharaan
saya budak tahun 3 di universiti malaysia sabah..
saya berasal dari trenganu..