SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Monday, September 24, 2012

D.C. National Zoo

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The giant panda cub born a week ago at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo has died, the zoo said Sunday. There were no outward signs of trauma or infection and it was not immediately clear what caused the cub’s death, the zoo said. “We are brokenhearted to share that we have lost our little giant panda cub,” a post on the zoo’s panda habitat website said.

Veterinarians examined the cub Sunday morning after zookeepers and volunteers heard a “distress vocalization” from the cub’s mother, 14-year-old giant panda Mei Xiang. The cub did not respond to CPR and other life-saving measures, the zoo said. “This is devastating for all of us here, “Dennis Kelly, Director of the National Zoo said. ”It’s hard to describe how much passion and energy and thought and care has gone into this.” “We’ve got a terrific team that works so hard and I’m so confident, so proud of the staff, the volunteers, the scientists, the work that our Chinese colleagues have put into this,” Kelly continued. “It is devastating and it’s going to take us time.” The cub, which the zoo had not yet named, was Mei Xiang’s second in seven years with 15-year-old Tian Tian, the zoo’s male giant panda. In July, a week-old giant panda cub died at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo after its mother’s milk accidentally entered its airway, officials said.

Atlanta has had three cubs, and the San Diego zoo has had six, including a cub born this year. A panda couple in Memphis has yet to have a cub, despite several tries. No other U.S. zoos have pandas.

The giant panda is one of the most endangered species in the world. There are estimated to be only 1,900 still in existence.