It's beginning to look like China's animal parks are subtly attempting to lead the way in liberalizing attitudes towards nontraditional relationships in the motherland. Not two months after Harbin allowed two gay penguin parents to adopt, now the Yunnan Wild Animal Park is promoting interracial marriage! To celebrate the love between "Long Hair" (长毛) the ram and "Junko" (纯子) the deer, they will hold a wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day next week. more ›

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Holy crap. Did you know that around 10,000 people flood into the Shanghai Zoo every morning to do calisthenics? They are all holders of the zoo's "excercise card" which grants free admission to the park for seniors over 70. But the repercussions of these mature morning masses are somewhat more serious than zoo officials anticipated. From Shanghai Daily, here's something you just don't read every day: more ›

Shanghai Wildlife Park has promptly suspended the trainer caught on video beating and kicking a bear cub. According to the park, the trainer was "not a staff member with the park, but was with a circus team from neighboring Anhui Province, which provides shows to visitors under contract with the park. The bear was also brought by the circus team." more ›

Yesterday morning, a zebra at a zoo in Xiamen, Fujian gave birth to a "donkra", or half-zebra, half-donkey. While apparently donkra is the official name for the cross-breeding, we were thinking "zonkey" or "debra" or "zedonkra" has a nicer ring to it. And according to the Daily Mail, a donkra (donkey sire, zebra mother) is much more rare than the more common zebroid (zebra sire, donkey mother.) So congratulations, Xiamen Haicang Wild Animal Park! Your weird animal is even weirder than usual. more ›

The world's oldest giant panda, a 34-year old female called Ming Ming has died, said the China Panda Protection Center in Sichuan. According to their statement, she passed away due to kidney failure on May 7, but it wasn't until today that the news was released to the media. Ming Ming lived to a ripe old age at a center in Guangdong--pandas live on average 15 years in the wild and 22 years in captivity. more ›

Oh no! It looks like some monkeys have escaped from their cages at Sheshan National Forest Park and are now on the loose, and are out and about terrorizing hapless tourists. Their caretakers are now asking the public to be on the look out... and to submit tips on how to get them back home. more ›

It's a pretty gross understatement to say that zoos in China are in the media limelight for their mistreatment of animals. From the 11 Siberian tigers found starved to death, to the heartbreaking discovery of the animal mass grave and the fatal attack on a keeper by a starving Bengal tiger at our own Shanghai Zoo, Chinese zoos and wildlife parks have gotten quite the reputation for being zoos from hell. Here, we bring you part one of a three-part series on our experiences at the Shanghai Zoo - unfortunately, it was unpleasant, to say the least. more ›

According to the following report, a panda has mauled a man at the Beijing zoo. The cause for the violent outburst appears to be stupidity: a man was trying to recover a toy his child dropped in the bear cage. Though there are many that think it's silly to give a child your seat on the subway, jumping into a bear cage has to be considered a major victory for the xiao huangdi camp. more ›

Few animals get tabloid coverage of their sex lives splashed across international media like our furry friends the pandas. Their being few is what the fuss is about. And now their enclosures have become Big-Brother-animal-sex episodes where their lack of procreativity is monitored as scientists continue to ply panda eyes and orifices with strategic tactics. more ›

Britain's most tiresome newspaper the Daily Mail has a typically sober and balanced report on a new animal show in Xiamen, Fujian (presumably HaiCang Safari Park). more ›