National Zoo panda arrives in China to join captive breeding program

Giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China by Rick LoBello

February 6, 2010.  Tai Shan, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo's beloved 4 ½-year-old giant panda, has arrived safely to his new home at Wolong’s Bifengxia Base in Ya’an, Sichuan. The 184-pound panda arrived at 4:26 p.m. local time in Chengdu on Feb. 5, 2010. On Feb. 4, Tai Shan’s 15-hour non-stop flight departed Dulles International Airport at 12:10 p.m. via a FedEx 777 plane, also known as the “Panda Express.”

Under the National Zoo’s agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, Tai Shan will take part in a panda breeding program at the Bifengxia Base. The Zoo successfully negotiated two extensions with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, which allowed the Zoo to keep Tai Shan for two-and-a-half years beyond the original two-year contract.

Tai Shan was born at the National Zoo on July 9, 2005, to Mei Xiang (mother) and Tian Tian (father); he is the first surviving giant panda cub born at the National Zoo.

Tai Shan was transported in a custom-made, spacious, steel crate. The giant panda was trained to enter and calmly remain in the crate to prepare him for the trip to China. Tai Shan was not sedated for the journey. He was accompanied by two National Zoo staffers—veterinarian Dr. Nancy Boedeker and keeper and trainer Nicole Meese.

Upon arrival, Tai Shan entered quarantine in the Base's indoor holding area where he will remain for 30 days before making his public debut to visitors of the Bifengxia Base.

Under the National Zoo’s agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, Tai Shan, now 4 1/2 years old, will be sent to Wolong’s Bifengxia Panda Base in Ya’an, Sichuan.

Salazar key to US Mexico international park in the Big Bend region

By Mark Glover.  Reprinted with Permission. Courtesy Big Bend Sentinel.

January 21, 2010. Alpine - Linking private and public lands on both sides of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande to create an international park at the big bend of our border with Mexico has vexed politicians for seventy five years. But last summer those efforts got new life when U.S. Dept of Interior Chief Ken Salazar and his Mexican counterpart Juan Elvira discussed the project during the North American Leaders Summit held in Guadalajara.

Although an agreement was not reached, a letter of intent was signed to pursue the matter and perhaps negate President Franklin D Roosevelt’s angst depicted in a letter he wrote to Mexican President Manual Avila Camancho in 1944, “"I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend (referring to the establishment of Big Bend National Park) will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park."
In today’s arena of cartel wars, drug smuggling and a closed border the international park idea seems improbable but Salazar’s determination may make the difference.

“The deciding factor may be whether Secretary Salazar wants to take a personal interest in the negotiations,” said Big Bend National Park Superintendent Bill Wellman.

Salazar, who grew up in the San Luis Valley, the headwaters of the Rio Grande in southern Colorado, knows the river and the desert. He was raised in an adobe home without electricity or plumbing and his family relied on the high dry terrain for food. Salazar mentions his love for the desert in almost all of his speeches.

And he’s not alone in support of the international park. Congressman Ciro Rodriguez energized the act by initiating House Resolution 695 last year that calls for discussions on the international park at high levels. According to the Congressman’s Press Secretary Rebeca Chapa, “Congressman Rodriguez is actively pursuing way to make this unique park a reality.”
In the post 9-11 age of increased US border security, the Department of Homeland Security headed by Secretary Janet Napolitano will be a significant factor in the negotiations.

“In principle, they (DHS) don’t have a problem with it,” Wellman said. “We have to come up with a reasonable proposal that works.”

“Secretary Salazar is reaching out to Secretary Napolitano to push this plan forward,” Courtney Lyons-Garcia Executive Director of the Friends of the Big Bend, said last week after returning from a trip from Washington DC where she met with members of the National Park Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Interior on the matter.

They’re looking to get a practical plan moving forward, get it on the table, a plan that is sustainable over the next 10 to 15 years, that not only encompasses an international park but also works as a conservation effort to control invasive species, protect native species and to work out flood control,” Lyons-Garcia said.

Should the International Park with Mexico succeed, it would be the second such arrangement the US has with another country. Waterton Glacier International Peace Park lies on the border with Canada straddling the states of Montana and Alberta.

“The big difference there is that on both sides of the border the land is government owned,” Wellman said. “In Mexico we’re dealing with both government and private landowners.”

To facilitate nearly three million contiguous acres of public access, three areas, privately owned, but federally protected parcels are part of the Mexican side of the international park plan: Sierra del Carmen (owned by CEMEX – one of the world’s largest cement producers, Canon de Santa Helena and the Maderas del Carmen. The big bend reach of the Rio Bravo was recently acquired by the Mexican government.

“The way we manage and the way they manage protected lands is quite different,” Wellman said.

On the US side of the proposed international park the Big Bend National Park, The Wild and Scenic River reach of the Rio Grande, the Texas owned 103,000 acre Black Gap Wildlife Management Area and the near-by but not contiguous 314,000 acre Big Bend Ranch State Park may all be part of the plan.

Boquillas, across from Big Bend National Park’s Rio Grande Village is likely to be the access point to the Mexican side of the park. Prior to 9-11, before the border with Mexico was closed, Boquillas served as an unofficial international aside for visitors to the Big Bend National Park.
“If they’re going to allow tour access, Mexico will have to provide some infrastructure, probably at Boquillas,” Lyons-Garcia said.

Amid almost daily headlines of drug-smuggling, murder and corruption charges, the border region could use some good news.

“Both countries would like to have a success,” Wellman said. 

NEW from ILoveParks.com - Guide to Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, Home to Critically Endangered Mountains Gorillas by website founder Rick LoBello.