Monday September 14, 2009, 4:05 pm
last February in India, I was given a ride to the local zoo in Darjeerling (north about 7,000 ft elevation) and left for 2 hours. It was one of the highlights of my trip with seeing one active red panda, one asleep on a tree limb, and their house. They were so different from Australian pandas -- more active and a long bushy trail. I fell in love.
later read in my Lonely Planet book that this was an unpubllized zoo well worth a day. India is making a real effort to protect and expand their national parks. there are more Indian tourists than other countries, but the foreign tourist dollar is very important to them too. The variety of animals in incredible mainly in the northern half. I wonder if it wouldn't be more effective to congratulate and complement other countries for their work in building up national parks than to constantly critize them.

Monday September 14, 2009, 10:02 pm
We have red pandas at one of our Botanical gardens here in SA and I have to say they are really cute, they always have a crowd watching the antics they get up to. Thanks for the post, Have a Blessed Day.