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Ich möchte mich Bauz einfach nur anschließen: Danke Doro und Torsten!
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Photo credits: Frau Schnatterliese (1 -Juli 2007), Hartmuth (2 -Januar 2009)
Every friendship is getting more intensive when ‘the ice is broken’. In the relationship between Malcolm Ramsay and his thick fured girl friend Nanuka it is just conversely: when finally in spring time the ice is breaking 11months of separation are in front of them. Nanuka will wander around, looking for a partner, seperating again as soon as she is pregnant. Malcolm during this time will teach as a researcher (scientist) at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. As a zoologist he knows, that polar bears and humans can´t become friends – actually. As human being he experienced that there can be exciting exceptions in reality.
Five years ago Malcolm was together with a colleague in the ice of the arctic Barrow Strait to watch polar bears. They heard wretchedly cries and at an icehole they found a polar bear baby in a trap. The Inuit-hunters had put the trap to catch seals, This is allowed to the Eskimos, even if often polar bears die in it. The mother wandered distressed around her baby. Malcolm shot an narcosis arrow and as she was lying there anaesthesized they rescued the baby. Malcolm took it on his arm to measure it, to weigh and to tag it. Than he let it free.
As the mother awaked, she sniffed at her baby and gave a long look to the men in the icevan. Before the thaw Malcolm recognized Nanuka (Inuit: female polar bear) near his winter scientific base. Malcolm drove with the buggy to her and opened the window – by impulse. “Completely crazy” he said, “I know, that this is perilous. But she put her head in, sniffered at me and looked at me. It looked like as if she wanted to thank me. This Nanuka is doing only one time in every spring. Few days later the ice is breaking and she is moving on.”
by T.F. Emmiot
German article here posted by Uli S in Hartmuth's forum
English translated version (Brit) here in Mervi's newest edition ofKnuti's Weekly
Thank you, Uli S. and Mervi!
Tuan Tuan und Yuan Yuan, die beiden Pandas, die Taiwan aus China erhielt, feierten das gestrige Chinesische Neumondfest mit Bambusblättern in ihrem neuen Gehege im Taipei City Zoo.Es war der erste Tag, an dem Besucher die beiden zu Gesicht bekamen nach einem Monat Quarantäne. Beide Namen verbunden bedeuten im übrigen Vereinigung im Chinesischen.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the two giant pandas from China, eat bamboo leaves inside their new enclosure at the Taipei City Zoo in Muzha January 26, 2009. Thousands of children and parents met the two pandas on Monday the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, after a month-long quarantine. The names of the pandas when linked mean "reunion" in Chinese.
Officials marked the occasion Friday at the Cranbrook Institute, Bloomfield , Michigan.
"He's in good health. He's retired," Organization for Bat Conservation director Rob Mies said.
By his species' standards Tanner is a senior citizen.Only about 4,000 of the large, fruit-eating bats still live on tiny Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean. They live about 20 years in the wild, Mies said.
Tanner had been the second oldest of the 1,000 or so golden bats in captivity until a few months ago when a 23-year-old female died at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo. He's also three years older than others in captivity.
Their ages are confirmed because each of the captive bats are registered worldwide, Mies said.
Called golden because of their reddish-blond fur, Tanner and his ilk also are known as golden flying foxes and are among the largest bats in the world.
Tanner has a 4-foot (1.22-meter) wingspan and weighs about a pound, but no longer flies due to a wing injury.
The nonprofit Organization for Bat Conservation researches and educates the public about bats. Its Bat Zone at Cranbrook is home to more than 100 bats from around the world.
Source & photo credits:Berlin (ots) - Der legendäre Eisbär Knut, in der Form eines kleinen Stofftieres, dient nicht nur zum Kuscheln, sondern auch als Wärmespender. Sein Inneres ist gefüllt mit einer natürlichen Getreide-Lavendel-Mischung. Legt man das Kuscheltier bei 800 Grad zwei Minuten lang in der Mikrowelle, strahlt es mehrere Stunden Wärme aus - eine Wohltat bei Muskelverspannungen, Gelenk- oder Bauchschmerzen und perfekt geeignet zum Kuscheln und Aufwärmen - nicht nur für Kinder.... Der angenehme Duft von Lavendel wirkt zudem entspannend und beruhigend.
"Mit den Beddy Bears gehören strombetriebene Heizdecken oder aufwendiges Wasserkochen für herkömmliche Wärmeflaschen absolut der Vergangenheit an", erklärt Norman Thier, Geschäftsführer der Greenlife Value GmbH. "Auch die herkömmlichen Kirschkernkissen können durch die Wärme-Kuscheltiere perfekt ersetzt werden."
Die neue mikrowellenfähige Generation der Teddy Bären ist zum Kuscheln, natürlichem Wärmen oder als Einschlafhilfe entwickelt worden. Die Beddy Bears werden in England produziert und von der Green Life Value GmbH in Deutschland vertrieben. Ihre Herstellung unterliegt höchsten Qualitäts- und Sicherheitsstandards. "Ganz im Gegensatz zu seinen Artgenossen ist der Beddy-Polar-Bär Knut ein wärmender Begleiter und das besonders in der kalten Jahreszeit", stellt Thier abschließend fest.
Weitere Informationen unter www.greenlife-value.de oder www.Beddy-Bear.de
Thanks to Frans for the link to the infos, to Viktor for the photo of the bear and Leena P , if we everybody had seen her photo already in November when posted first, it would have been a hotter winter for a lot of people...
Taotao, a 10-month-old polar bear sways and waves his paws in the air as if saying hello to his visitors. ...Like Knut, the polar bear from Germany, Taotao was abandoned by his young mother shortly after birth, according to Li Li, a keeper at Laohutan Ocean Park in Dalian, Liaoning province.
Li says that Taotao is one of the first generation of polar bears born and raised in China since this rare species was introduced. He was in such a vulnerable condition at first that he had to be kept in a special incubator for weeks.
“We sat beside the incubator 24 hours every day to monitor his temperature and breathing, help with his urination and defecation, and even smell his waste to tell if he was healthy,” Li says.
During the first few weeks, keepers had to wipe their hands and clothes with Taotao’s diapers in order to smell familiar to Taotao, or it would not let keepers come close, according to Sun Shijia, one of Taotao’s keepers at the park. As the days went by, Taotao grew more attached to its keepers.
“He sucked our fingers like a nursing infant and purred like a gentle cat being caressed,” says Li Ping, another of Taotao’s keepers.
Taotao often bit them tenderly, according to Li, a way of showing affection and happiness during play. Even so, the keepers’ hands and arms were black and blue.
After meticulous care for 10 months, Taotao grew quickly from several hundred grams at birth to the present 35 kg. Sun says the helpless baby with light pink skin and fine soft hair has grown into a vigorous child with snow-white fur and an air of charming naivety.
Taotao swims in his special swimming pool every day. On hot days he lingers in the pool for hours, paddling in the water and splashing. Sometimes the keepers have no alternative but to carry him out, according to Li Ping. ...
Keeper Li says that Taotao’s parents were from Finland and were presented by the Finland National Park as ambassadors of friendship between China and Finland in 2001, settling in Laohutan Ocean Park.
Taotao was not born until seven years later. According to Li, the reason for this was that the male bear is 16 years old this year, or over 40 in human terms, while the female bear is only 9, still quite young, in comparison.
Taotao was born on March 9, 2008. Sun says the inexperienced mother was at a loss, confused by the birth of this poor little creature and left him on the cold ground.
Taotao survived thanks to his human nannies, who spared no effort in taking care of him.
“We have given Taotao more care than our own children,” Sun says.
Story and photos: MySinchew/By KANG SHU in Beijing/ China Daily/ AsiaNews