Kouhin (Xing Bin) the nearly 5 year old Giant Panda born at Adventure World Japan, will be sent to Chengdu, the home of his parents on the 15th March 2010.

Two of his older siblings Ei Mei and Yu Hin have already gone to Chengdu and are part of the breeding program.

The Commercial Appeal is stating that Ya Ya the female giant panda at Memphis Zoo, is not pregnant. A ultrasound that was performed last week, showed a tiny fetus and a small heartbeat, but another ultra sound carried out recently shows the fetal sack is empty which means that Ya Ya had a miscarriage.

My sincere condolences to Ya Ya and the whole Giant Panda team. I hope you will have better luck next time.

Atlanta Zoo's nearly 18 month old Giant Panda will be gradually weaned away from his mother in to a solitary life in keeping with how pandas live in the wild.

San Diego developed the step wise programme and it was used to wean Mai Lan (Atlanta's 3 year old that has just gone to China) and also used at other zoos in America. The programme gradually increases the time away from the mother.

Xi Lan should be fully weaned by early march. Xi Lan has already started to eat solid foods including bamboo, leafeater biscuits and fruit.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock the news has been full of the departure of two giant pandas from America to China.