China Chronicles November 19, 2012

• Siberian tiger population roars at Heilongjiang breeding park

  There was good news for one of the world's rarest species today, when it was revealed that 91 Siberian tiger cubs have been born this year in an artificial breeding park in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
  The births mean there are now 1,067 Siberian tigers in the Siberian Tiger Park in the suburbs of Harbin, the provincial capital, said Liu Dan, chief engineer at the park.
  Twenty of the 91 cubs will be selected to join the state-level group for artificial breeding to ensure the quality of the species, said Liu.
  The park has been strictly controlling the number of artificially bred Siberian tigers in recent years, the chief engineer added.
  It began to use DNA tests to prevent "intermarriage" among Siberian tigers in 2001.
  Also known as "China Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center", the park was established in 1986 with eight Siberian tigers.
  Siberian tigers, otherwise known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, mainly live in east Russia, northeast China and northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Some 500 of the animals currently live in the wild, with an estimated 12 in Heilongjiang and eight to 10 in neighboring Jilin Province.

• Family escapes in time as house sinks

  A 67-year-old farmer in a village in central Hunan Province found the land near his house was sinking as he went to a backyard toilet on Friday night and saved his paralyzed wife just before the house collapsed.

  Zhou Zhijun, the farmer in Quanhong Village, woke up at 2am on that fateful day and went to the toilet in the rain when he heard rumbles from the ground and found a pit about 2 meters in diameter had appeared outside his house and was expanding.

  Zhou called up his son living nearby to help remove his paralyzed mother out. Soon his two-floor house was engulfed in sunken soil together with about 20 trees around the house, the local Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported today.

  By 11am on Saturday, the pit had grown to about 300 square meters in size and 40 meters deep. Local residents believed the land subsidence was caused by a coal mine, not far from the village. Nine households in the village found their walls had cracks since the mine went into operation in 2006.

  However, officials haven't concluded if the land subsidence was a natural disaster or a result of reckless mining activities. They have ordered the Jincheng Mine Company to suspend production, the paper said.

• Food poisoning ruled out in school diseases

  ELEVENT girl students in a junior high school in Zhenxiong County in Yunnan Province felt sick and fainted briefly after having lunch Last Friday, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

  Xiao Yun, a 16-year-old student at the Guozhu Central School, passed out after lunch and her mother rushed to the school after receiving phone calls from her daughter's classmates, the Yunnan based Metropolitan Times said.

  The mother, surnamed Li, said more than ten other girls also showed similar symptom of nausea and dizziness.

  Xiao Yun was hospitalized at the Zhenxiong County People's Hospital at 8:30pm with symptoms of trembling, headache, listlessness and breathing difficulty, but doctors failed to find the cause.

  Another parent surnamed Wang said his daughter also felt headache and fainted while doing homework in the classroom. His daughter was sent to the same hospital as Xiao Yun.

  Food poisoning was suspected for the girls' illness but the school's headmaster Wu Zhen declined to comment, saying he was still at a meeting. On Saturday, Wu said all the students were in good condition.

  Local health authorities tested food samples from the school canteen and ruled out food poisoning. A government official told reporters that the symptoms first appeared among a few students on November 3 and affected more students nearly two weeks later.

  A sharp change in temperature could also be a factor because as the 11 sick students were all wearing thin clothes and some were having from flu.

• China launches 3rd environmental satellite

  China today sent the third satellite in its "Environment I" family into the sky, sharpening its abilities in environmental monitoring and disaster forecasting.
  The launch marks the completion of a plan initiated by China in 2003 to create a small environmental monitoring satellite constellation, according to north China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
  The radar satellite will join the other two operating optical satellites "Environment I" satellites, which were launched in Sept. 2008, to form a network covering most of China's territory.
  This "2+1" formula will help provide scientific evidence for assessing natural disaster situations, emergency aid and reconstruction as well as enable China to monitor and forecast ecological changes, pollution and natural disasters around the clock, the center said.
  The satellite was carried by a Long March 2C rocket.
  The rocket also carried two additional satellites designed to run tests and carry out in-orbit experiments for new-type aerospace equipment, materials, methods and miniature satellite platforms.

• China launches 3rd environmental satellite

  China today sent the third satellite in its "Environment I" family into the sky, sharpening its abilities in environmental monitoring and disaster forecasting.
  The launch marks the completion of a plan initiated by China in 2003 to create a small environmental monitoring satellite constellation, according to north China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
  The radar satellite will join the other two operating optical satellites "Environment I" satellites, which were launched in September 2008, to form a network covering most of China's territory.
  This "2+1" formula will help provide scientific evidence for assessing natural disaster situations, emergency aid and reconstruction as well as enable China to monitor and forecast ecological changes, pollution and natural disasters around the clock, the center said.
  The satellite was carried by a Long March 2C rocket.
  The rocket also carried two additional satellites designed to run tests and carry out in-orbit experiments for new-type aerospace equipment, materials, methods and miniature satellite platforms.

• Endangered camels under threat from water shortage

  A scientist working with rare wild camels in northwest China has told of research showing the animals are increasing in number but are coming under threat from drought.
  
  The camels, among the most endangered large mammals on Earth, undergo seasonal migration of several hundred km through the sandy Annanba Nature Reserve, located in the Altun mountain range straddling the border between Gansu Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
  
  There are only 420 to 470 of them in China, even fewer than the number of wild pandas.
  
  Annanba is one of the four state-level nature reserves for the species set up by the Chinese government in the country's northwestern regions in recent years.
  
  Bai Shengxuan, a research director with the reserve, said a global positioning system and five infrared cameras used to track the camels had shown their number in the area has increased because of protection efforts.
  
  However, research initiated by the reserve also found a current severe water shortage is a worry, even for animals which can famously survive long periods of thirst.
  
  Wild camels are often found tracking water resources in flocks, and some of them recently are dying before finding any water, said Bai.
  
  According to the research, due to global warming, the rainless Altun Mountain area has been suffering from even more deficit in precipitation, as snow and ice coverage on the mountain is shrinking as the underground water level is declining. Many creeks and springs have dried up, and some wetland has become salinized.
  
  In addition, human encroachment has also aggravated water shortages, according to Bai.
  
  "Mining workers and precious stone collectors often escape the supervision of the reserve, finding, consuming and polluting the limited water here," he said.
  
  To prevent the water from evaporating, the reserve built a 25-square-m water pool two years ago, and it has become an important habitat along the camels' migrat! ory route.
  
  Bai said more pools would be built, and weather modification technologies would also be adopted to bring more precipitation.
  
  The research director urged people to help with the camels' rehabilitation by not interfering with them or their habitat.
  
  "Every single detail in the Gobi desert -- mountains, trees, water and grass -- is closely related to the fate of China's wild camels," he said.