Pandas | Common News Update

Jun132020 by adminNo Comments

Red pandas tracked by satellite in conservation ‘milestone’

Science

Conservationists are satellite tracking red pandas in the mountains of Nepal to find out more about the factors that are driving them towards extinction.The mammals are endangered, with numbers down to a few thousand in the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.Ten red pandas have been fitted with GPS collars to monitor their range in the forests near Mount Kangchenjunga.The GPS collars are said to be working well and yielding "exciting data".The six females and four males are being tracked and photographed using camera traps in a conservation effort involving scientists, vets, government officials in Nepal and conservation group Red Panda Network. "This is a great mi...

Feb262020 by adminNo Comments

Red pandas are two species, not one

Science

The red panda is not one species but two, according to DNA evidence.Already endangered due to hunting and habitat loss, conservation efforts are now even more critical, say scientists.The red panda lives in the mountainous forests of China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, where numbers are down to a few thousand individuals and decreasing every day.Two varieties have long been suspected, based on physical features, but genetic evidence has been lacking. Chinese red pandas have redder fur and striped tail rings, while Himalayan pandas have whiter faces.Lead researcher Yibo Hu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said the Himalayan red panda needs more urgent p...

May32019 by adminNo Comments

Pandas descend from carnivores, despite vegetarian diet

Science

May 3 (UPI) -- Today, pandas largely feast on a vegetarian diet dominated by bamboo, but they descended from carnivores and their bodies still operate that way, a new study says. While the panda's diet is plant-based, it's protein and carbohydrate intake looks more like a hypercarnivore, which gets more than 70 percent of its those nutrients from eating other animals. The findings were published Thursday in Current Biology. "Based on what they eat, giant pandas absolutely belong to the herbivores -- but considering the macronutrient composition of the ingested and absorbed diets, they could also belong to the carnivores," Fuwen Wei, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Science and study author, said in a news release. Throughout their evolution , giant pandas acquired herbivore trait...

Jul202018 by adminNo Comments

What life is like when your child is diagnosed with PANDAS

Health

Brian Barnes is a father living in suburban Minnesota with his wife Natalie Barnes and their four children. Their oldest son Parker was just 10 years old when the Barnes family says he went from being a rambunctious and outgoing boy to having odd tics and strange moodiness in April 2017. For months, the Barnes say, Parker had seizures and was dealing with debilitating anxiety, rage and depression. An emergency room doctor recommended that Parker be evaluated by a psychiatrist. As Parker was evaluated, one doctor became struck by one factor in his case. She learned that Parker's symptoms had first begun months earlier, when he had been diagnosed with strep throat, and said he might have something called Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection...

Jul192018 by adminNo Comments

What is PANDAS, the disorder some say can cause extreme behavioral changes in kids?

Health

Alexia Baier was an eager-to-learn, 4-year-old girl beginning pre-K in a suburb outside of Chicago. She thrived academically -- counting, painting and playing with other children. But five months after starting pre-K, she was infected with a bacteria that several millions of people get every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria, group A strep, caused Alexia to get strep throat, a condition children usually recover from easily with treatment. After 10 days of antibiotics, the infection disappeared but so did Alexia's bubbly personality. Within two days after completing antibiotics, Alexia began showing behavioral changes at home and eventually at school. She suddenly became defiant and explosive. "It was a lot of screaming, a lot of hitting and...