odds ’n’ ends

TOKYO:

A baby panda whose birth this week delighted Japan and has dominated news coverage ever since appears to be in good health, the zoo said Tuesday.

Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo celebrated the tiny baby’s arrival Monday, prompting rolling television reports from the hordes of journalists who showed up to mark the happy occasion.

On Tuesday, eleven-year-old mum Shin Shin cuddled her tiny offspring tightly in an enclosure away from her eager fans — with a “Please Be Quiet” sign nearby.

“She is always holding the cub” to keep it warm, zoo director Yutaka Fukuda said.

“We periodically hear its cries so it seems to be in good health.” Zoo officials said they were still not able to give the size and weight of the cub, nor whether it is a boy or a girl.

Pandas are born pink, hairless and weighing around 100 grams (three-and-a-half ounces) — so small it can be difficult to determine their sex. (AFP)

SYDNEY:

Wildlife rangers in Australia’s outback have started building a 185 km (115 miles) electrified enclosure to protect native animals from pests such as feral cats, which are threatening some species with extinction.

The electrified enclosure on a former cattle property outside of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory will cover around 9,450 hectares (22.2 acres), almost twice the size of the city of Manhattan.

The project by The Australian Wildlife Conservancy will represent the biggest predator-proof fenced area in the world when completed, Australia’s Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews told Reuters.

“The science is crystal clear that feral cats are the single biggest threat to our mammals and many of our threatened species will benefit from this new area,” Andrews said on Tuesday. (RTRS)

KUALA LUMPUR:

Malaysian customs officers have seized almost 300 kgs of pangolin scales being smuggled through the main airport, officials said on Tuesday.

The 288-kg (635 pound) haul was found at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Friday in 12 boxes labelled as oyster shells on the waybill.

The scales worth around 3.69 million ringgit ($870,000) arrived from Ghana on a Turkish Airlines flight, the customs department said in a statement. Authorities are investigating. The scales of the endangered pangolin, the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, are highly prized in Vietnam and China where they are misleadingly touted as having medicinal properties. (AFP)