Giant Bears Munching Their Way Through the Bamboo Forests

[mandy]

The giant panda, the icon of endangered animal species the world over, may be doing much better than previously thought.

A study has provided new evidence that there may be nearly twice as many of the black-and-white bears munching their way through the remote bamboo forests of China as scientists have previously calculated.

DNA fingerprinting, using panda droppings, has made it possible for the first time to conduct a much more accurate census of panda numbers, indicating there maybe as many as 3,000 animals in the wild. The last census, in 1998, put the population at less than 1,600...

full article: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/L5g1K...e-Up.xhtml