Are Macau's pandas in danger? Ofcourse not!
The Macau Daily Times published this article on April fool’s day…
Kai Kai and Xin Xin, the cherished couple of giant pandas that became Macau residents on December 18, may be forced to return to Chengdu after only three-and-a-half months due to health-safety concerns.
The current levels of Xenon 131 and 133 radiation detected in local air, as well as iodine-131 and isotope and cesium-137 isotope that contaminated the sea off-shore Japan following problems in the Fukushima nuclear plant have been confirmed as not harmful to Macau’s human population but there is currently no indication as to whether or not the levels may pose a possible health risk for giant pandas.
Due to the extreme vulnerability of the young couple of Pandas, Beijing authorities were reportedly considering the possibility of temporarily transferring the couple of new residents back to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, at least while the situation in quake and tsunami-hit Japan remains uncertain.
A renowned local veterinarian interviewed by Macau Daily Times has confirmed Beijing’s fears. Although the female panda Xin Xin is more immune to radiation risks, he added, the male panda, Kai Kai, cannot be subject to radiation that exceeds a certain level, even the lowest, as it may pose harm to his fertility.
That would surely adversely affect their much hoped-for reproduction in Macau.
Yesterday, answering a question in the weekly meeting with the foreign press, a China Foreign Office spokesperson washable to provide a clear response as to safety concerns about the pandas in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Japan, but hinted that if such a situation arose, the region of Chengdu (due to its interior location) would offer the best conditions for pandas.
Macau SAR officials were not immediately available for comment yesterday.Source: http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/23786-Pandas-may-have-leave.html
We apologise to all of you who fell for our April fool’s day prank in yesterday’s edition. And we congratulate those of you who didn’t!
The 1st of April was marked as usual in the local press and media – as elsewhere in the world – by publishing a creative and harmless prank.
Using our much loved and well known Pandas we tried to trick you into believing they were packing their bags. Well they are certainly not. April fools!!!
We think our fluffy friends will forgive us. Some of our readers fell for the joke and some didn’t, but we did have some entertaining and good-humoured feedback on our webpage.
Two positive lessons to be learned; first, we tested your alertness, and secondly, we think you should go and visit our pandas and say; Hey! Never leave us!
Source: http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/23822-Hey-Our-Pandas-wouldnt-dream-leaving.html
