Escaping Panda

The Escape:

Monday morning commotion broke out in a zoo in Rotterdam when it was discovered that one of the endangered red panda’s escaped. It was found later in one of the high trees near the park in one of the suburbs of Rotterdam. They tried to catch him but the panda was getting more and more nervous because of al the people surrounding him. He climbed higher and higher and the fire-fighters weren’t able to get him out of the tree so in the end it was decided to tranquilize him. He was easlily picked out of the tree after that. The Panda is now save back in it’s indoor cage as zoo staff weren’t able to figure out how the panda escaped and it has happened before! The zoo will not let the panda’s back out till they are sure none can escape again.

Red Panda Name:

The Chinese name of the Red Panda is 小熊貓; (xiǎo xióng māo), meaning 'small panda'. The Chinese name of the Red Panda is based on that of the Giant Panda, unlike English where the Giant Panda has been named after the Red Panda. The Red Panda is also sometimes known as hǔo hú (火狐), which literally translates as
"fire fox", a name which can refer both to the red fox and the Red Panda. The Red Panda is the state animal of Sikkim. The term firefox, as used to describe the Red Panda, has been propagated by its use in the web browser Mozilla Firefox, although the browser logo depicts a fox with its tail on fire rather than a Red Panda.

Panda’s in the news:

In May 2005, the Red Panda gained a surge of popularity in Japan when a panda named Futa (風太) living in the Chiba Animal Park was found to be able to stand on his hind legs like a human for up to 30 seconds at a time. Not to be outdone, another zoo, the Yokohama Zoo Zoorasia in Yokohama recently found another "gifted" red panda within their confines, Dale (デール) who is capable of walking a considerable distance bipedal. While both of the standing pandas have gained the species many fans in Japan, both the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido and the World Wide Fund for Nature have expressed concern that the increased commercialism of this species may be putting too much burden on the animals as the animal is already endangered by hunting and habitat loss. Futa was featured in a commercial for the Japan Tobacco cigarette company.