Word: wild
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...breeding program. But environmentalists now wonder how necessary the breeding is. Back in 1975, with the pandas near extinction, China set aside 10 nature reserves for the bears, covering almost 2.5 million acres. That move, plus years of global publicity for the panda's plight, has helped China's wild panda population grow to a stable 1,600 bears...
...health of the population also calls into question the center's practice of reintroducing captive-bred pandas into the wild. The fate of 4-year-old Xiang Xiang, a former Wolong resident, has added to the controversy. Having had his every need anticipated by a loyal band of caregivers, the baffled bear received the shock of his young life last spring. He was dropped into the middle of thick bamboo forest, making him the first giant panda bred in captivity to be released by Chinese scientists into the wild. Although he had received some survival training, Xiang Xiang soon found...
Maybe producing pandas and then tossing them into the wild doesn't make sense. According to Jim Harkness, the former WWF chief in China, a range of factors drive the breeding program, notably "the myth that captive breeding will save the panda." The program is a source of national pride; plus there's the fuzzy economics: zoos donate money to China in exchange for the right to display pandas. In the U.S. four zoos, including the National Zoo in Washington, are each paying $10 million over a decade for their Wolong-bred bears...
...denies that the breeding program is aimed at raising revenues. He notes that the government restricts the number of overseas groups the Wolong center can supply with animals, and says all donations are used to expand protected areas and for research. And Zhang insists that reintroducing pandas into the wild will help sustain populations over the long run. "It is not responsible for anyone to declare that the experiment is pointless," Zhang says. Maybe Wu Gong should put down that bamboo stalk. A less pleasurable ordeal could await him in the wild...
...song almost entirely improvised—featuring Palmieri, Lynch, Cohen, Parker K. Barnes ’08 on bass, and Christopher M. Krogslund ’09 on drums—was beautiful. Palmieri, Lynch, and Cohen wowed the crowd with their musicianship, exchanging solos, and just having a wild, raucous time with the piece...