Tidbits of panda

12. The trials and tribulations of a panda cub trying to escape were captured by British photographer David Jenkins, a volunteer worker at Bifengxia Panda Reserve, Chengdu earlier this month. The panda tried his best to climb over the railings, but kept on tumbling onto the back of its resting sibling, who was clearly unimpressed at attempts to recreate the Great Escape.

13. In Chengdu, a pair of giant pandas fell in love in March, but the male panda, Yongyong, was not quite sure how to embrace his partner in a romantic fashion. In desperation, the staff of the Chengdu Panda Reserve showed the couple films of pandas getting to know each other. Kelin, the female panda, was hooked. Her eyes never left the screen and Yongyong also realized what his duties were. They were then given the privacy the situation required.

14. When it comes to love, pandas are eternally loyal. The world's oldest captive male panda - 34-year-old Baobao died last summer. When his childhood sweetheart Tiantian died in 1995, Yanyan was sent to Germany to be his second partner. But Baobao was grief stricken and never recovered from the sorrow of Tiantian's death. Baobao never mated with Yanyan. Zoo scientists removed sperm from his body for eight consecutive years to plant into Yanyan's womb. But, to no avail.

15. Just as the world's most expensive coffee is civet coffee, made from berry excrement, the world's most expensive tea will soon be created from panda poo. Tea producers at Sichuan University say it will cost 80,000 yuan ($10,300) per kilogram when it hits markets. The panda poo has antioxidant properties similar to those of green tea. Actually panda poo has an appealing fragrance. Although a panda eats 30 kg of bamboo every day, very little nutrition is absorbed. So their poo smells of bamboo and is rich in fiber and nutrients.

16. Chichi was acquired by an Austrian animal broker, Heini Demmer, in exchange for three giraffes, two rhinos, two hippos and two zebras, from Beijing Zoo in 1958. Chichi was sent to London Zoo but she lives on as probably the most famous panda in the world. The World Wildlife Fund used her on its logo.

17. In October 2008, China completed the world's first giant panda genome sequence map. The study found that the giant panda has 21 pairs of chromosomes, and its genome size is similar to humans, about 3 billion base pairs, including 20,000 to 30,000 genes. Genome sequence results confirmed the panda belonged to the bear family. Surprisingly, the researchers also found that the giant panda genome and the dog genome are close in structure and it has similarities to human genomes.

18. Pandas have vertical split pupils, just like the house cat, indicating that it has the characteristics of nocturnal animals. Research also showed that adult pandas make 12 distinct sounds, ranging from the romantic, to fearful. Pandas can wail, bark, roar, and scream but newborns can only "creak", " wah-wah" and "cuckoo", meaning hunger, illness, or the need to defecate.

19. An adult wild panda was caught on camera last year in Sichuan province warily circling around a pile of wildebeest bones. It was the first time that we got proof that pandas can be carnivorous. During the Spring Festival this year in Sichuan, a wild giant panda visited a village house, stole a lamb and ate it alive. But such incidents are rare, and scientists fear that this is another sign of deteriorating living conditions in the wild for pandas.

20. The first person to take a living panda out of China was Ruth Harkness, an American fashion designer. She captured a 6-week-old cub while exploring a mountainous region in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province in 1936. She named the cub Su Lin, which means "a little bit of something cute", after the sister-in-law of her expedition partner, Quentin Young. With the help of friends, Harkness bribed customs officers to record her as "taking a barking dog". Su Lin was carried onto the ocean liner President McKinley in a bamboo basket. Later, the cub was sent to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and attracted as many as 40,000 visitors a day.

21 Panda diplomacy First Phase (1957-1982) – diplomatic gift In 1957, giant panda Pinging was bestowed as a national gift to the Soviet Union, a symbolic gesture of thanks for recognizing the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to establish diplomatic relations with China. In 1959, An'an was sent to Moscow Zoo to keep Pingping company. China gave away five giant pandas; Yihao, Erhao, Lingling, Sanxing and Danan to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1965 to 1880. Two months after US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in February 1972, giant panda Hsinghsing and Lingling arrived in Washington, DC. France hosted a panda couple Yenyen and Lili in Zoo de Vincennes during the term of President Georges Pompidou after they were offered to him as a gift in 1973. France is the first Western power to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1964. A total of 23 giant pandas were given away to nine countries during this phase. Besides those mentioned, other countries that were given pandas as gifts are Mexico, the UK, Spain, Germany and Japan.

22. Panda diplomacy Second Phase (1982- present) – "on tour" to "ten-year loans" In 1982, China officially ceased the practice of giving pandas away as gifts due to their dwindling numbers. Renewable loans, for a period of 10 years, were introduced in the 1990s. From 1994, the loans shifted to an emphasis on partnership for scientific studies to protect endangered species. On the eve of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, China and the US reached a three-month loan agreement for a pair of giant pandas. Yongyong and Yingxin from Beijing Zoo thus became the first two pandas on tour abroad. The two giant pandas were later transferred on loan to San Francisco Zoo for another three months. This opened the door to an influx of foreign zoos signing short panda leases with Chinese zoos in the 1980s. Such profit-oriented practices attracted increasing criticism both from the government and animal protection groups. In the early 1990s, China banned the practice, and only 10-year loans were allowed. In 1994, China and Japan jointly launched a panda breeding research program, marking a new shift in panda diplomacy. Panda couple Meimei and Yongming were sent to Japan. Their cub Xingbang returned to China in March 2010.