Talk:Giant Panda

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Talk:Giant Panda / /archive1 (2006) / /archive2 (2007)

Links Broken

This article is locked for editing, but the external links are almost all out of date, this is dumb, it should take me half a second to rectify broken links, will any admin even see this message?Denito (talk) 12:54, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

It's only semi-protected so you don't need an admin, just a user who's been around for a short time. Looking at your edit history I believe you should be able to edit semi-protected articles. If you've tried and find you can't, list which links are broken and what they should be replaced with and I can make the changes on your behalf. -- SiobhanHansa 18:33, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

i really love pandas —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.237.183.207 (talk) 21:17, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Taxonomic history

I think there should be a subsection covering this aspect. For many years it was widely debated if the panda was a bear or a procyonid (relative of raccoons) and it even occupied its own family -Ailuropodidae- at some point. The red panda has followed a similar histry. Finally, DNA tests and other genetic technologies proved that the giant panda is indeed a bear, and the red panda a procyonid - the only procyonis that lives today outside the Americas in natural form. I lack the sources or the time to include this in a good shape. Can somebody write about it?--Menah the Great (talk) 16:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Is this Article Locked?

The Edit this page tab isn't showing up for me, but it doesn't say that the article is locked either. What's going on?206.174.3.88 (talk) 09:11, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

The article is protected from editing by new and unregistered editors. If you register account you should be able to edit in within a few days. Or else you can use to {{editprotected}} template on this page and an admin will make the edit on your behalf. 09:15, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Pandas living outside of China

You say there are 27 panda's living outside of china, but if you count whats on your site there actually 36. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.62.228.113 (talk) 01:59, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Pandas and Chinese law

Shouldn't there be more info regarding China's laws on pandas, eg, capital punishment on panda poaching, and the ban of dipicting panda deaths in video games?--PCPP (talk) 02:12, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

== Adventure World information is outdated == edit protected

Adventure World, Shirahama, Wakayama - Eimei (M), Meimei (F), Rauhin (F), Kouhin (M), Aihin (F) and Meihin (M). Yu Hin (M) went to China in 2004. Ryu Hin and Syu Hin (male twins) went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China in October 2007. In December 2006, twin cubs Aihin and Meihin were born to Ei Mei and Mei Mei. Pandapoly (talk) 20:44, 6 March 2008 (UTC) pandapoly

Cubs "returned" to China

The article states that panda cubs born in the U.S. were "returned" to china. Since the panda cubs were never previously in china (regardless of the fact that they are chinese property), returned does not seem to convey the correct action. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.246.59.61 (talk) 08:58, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

could you think of a better word? :\ 124.13.241.52 (talk) 08:31, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

"returned" is the right word. Imagine your mother is working overseas and she gives birth to your brother there, it'd be fair to say that one day your mother and your new born brother will return to their home country. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reyn116 (talk • contribs) 14:48, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

It's a loan. Here is a NYT article that describes the arrangement. Obviously, China thinks US is rich, since they charge US zoos like 6-7 times what they charge Thailand zoos. --Voidvector (talk) 00:23, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

US is rich compared to Thailand. --70.128.119.10 (talk) 09:55, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Legally, China lays claim in its contracts that any new born pandas at overseas zoos are property of the country. So technically this is a true phrase for the time being. Physically, until pandas establish habitat elsewhere in the world, it would be difficult for a country to assert that it owns any panda (ie: where else can you find bamboo forests?). .:DavuMaya:. 23:16, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Name section (grammar edit)

why is this article locked? anyway, here's an edit of the name section to fix the grammar.

The name "panda" originates from a Himalayan language, possibly Nepali. As used in the West the name was originally applied to the red panda. Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as "Mottled Bear" (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or "Particolored Bear".

The Chinese name for the giant panda, 大熊貓, literally translates to "large bear cat," or just "bear cat" (熊貓). There are two explanations for the origin of this name.

Physiologically, the eyes of most other bear species have round pupils, but giant pandas have pupils that are vertical slits like cats' eyes. These unusual eyes, combined with its ability to effortlessly scale trees, may be what inspired the Chinese to call the panda "bear cat." However, this explanation seem unlikely as locals from different provinces use names such as "spotted bear" (花熊) and "bamboo bear" (竹熊) for giant panda, which shows that the farmers are more likely to use "bear" as the noun when they see an obviously bear-shaped animal.

On the other hand, some researchers believe the name "bear cat," originally belonged to the red panda, which also live on bamboo in China, and are actually cat-size. When Himalayans first saw the giant panda, they named it "large bear cat," due to the similarities in behaviors and habitat. This would also explain why Chinese zoological texts and dictionaries published in the early 20th century always used the word "large" in the name.

In Taiwan, the modern name for panda is "cat bear," (貓熊), where cat is grammatically the adjective and bear is the noun. Although many researchers have found this name to be likely derived from misunderstandings of writing formats,[23] "cat bear" makes more sense logically and thus there are no efforts to change the name back to the original name of "large bear cat." Some even propose that "cat bear" should be the official Chinese name internationally.[24]

• • • —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.35.95.69 (talk) 00:20, June 14, 2008

I have improved and cut down this section. There are dozens of names for the same animal, we don't need to really explain all of them, only the important ones. .:DavuMaya:. 23:11, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Reminder about copyright violation

I would remind all editors of this article especially anonymous IPs of Wikipedias rules on Wikipedia:Copyright violations. After Googling several blocks of text on this page, I found multiple occurrences of copy paste from websites into WP. It's very important you do not literally copy text from other websites into Wikipedia pages. It won't hurt you to try and restate the text in an encyclopedic manner and offer a source back which is how scholars do it. You can read an explanation of what a reliable source is and how to use Wikipedia:Citation templates which auto-generate your source into the References list. .:DavuMaya:. 20:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

The name "Panda" comes from...

According to Scienceray.com, the name “panda” is Nepali and means “bamboo eater.” :3

here! Nessisasquid (talk) 21:41, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Chinese name

This really isn't needed. If we're going to include it, however, it should be included in a {{Chinese}} template instead of in the article prose, because it's basically just a big blob of unreadable symbols in the prose. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 17:34, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

i don't get it. "really isn't needed"? why not? - Metanoid (talk, email) 18:41, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Because it's incomprehensible to the vast majority of readers and thus completely useless in the prose. Wikipedia is not a translating dictionary, and the introduction is meant to draw people into the article, not put them off by being full of things which have no value to them. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 18:55, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

One could also add that the Tasmanian Devil page does not translate its name into Palawa kani. The Eurasian badger page does not translate its name into all the languages of Eurasia. The Indian Elephant page does not begin with translations of its name into the 500 languages of India. And a darn good thing too. That's why scientists invented Latin names. Cop 663 (talk) 20:21, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

there are, however, entries wherein the names of species native to non-english-speaking locales are given in the most common local vernacular(s). i am not arguing for the ridiculous notion that we should include every single common name in every single regional language! but one or three of the most common seems appropriate enough for an encyclopedia, imo (especially when the organism in question is endemic to a relatively restricted geographic location, as, say, with giant pandas and tassie devils). sure, the chinese script itself may be indecipherable to us, but why not the anglicized version of same (eg, "big bear cat")? is there policy or consensus leaning away from this? - Metanoid (talk, email) 00:06, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

There's no harm in the information itself (there's already a longish section discussing its Chinese name at Giant_Panda#Name), but it doesn't belong in the lead, because it's not crucial to the subject: pandas may happen to live in China, but the fact that Chinese people speak a particular language and give them a particular name is of minimal importance to pandas themselves and to the study of pandas. It's an interesting sidenote, not something so vital as to belong in the first sentence of an English language article (unlike the Latin name, which is important if you're studying pandas). The policy would be WP:LEAD, which says "The emphasis given to material in the lead [section] should roughly reflect its importance to the topic according to reliable sources".Cop 663 (talk) 01:04, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

ah, ok. that makes sense. thanks - Metanoid (talk, email) 01:56, 5 July 2008 (UTC)