Photo in the News: Panda Baby Boom Arrives on Pink Paws

July 12, 2005—Forget sharks: The summer of the panda is upon us, and it's padding in on 20 pink paws. Last week alone five giant panda cubs were born in captivity: one at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo and two pairs of twins (one of which is pictured above) at China's Wolong panda reserve.
A newborn giant panda is about as big as a stick of butter and lacks the familiar black-and-white markings for its first month or so of life. Successful births in captivity are extremely rare—and extremely prized by conservationists, given the species's dwindling numbers. About 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild, plus about 160 living in zoos and breeding centers, according to the National Zoo.

Adding a circle-of-life pallor to the otherwise rosy news, China this week announced that the world's oldest known giant panda, a female named Mei Mei, had died at a zoo in the city of Guilin at age 36—or about 108 in human years.

—Ted Chamberlain

Giant Catfish May Be World's Largest Freshwater Fish

Photograph by Suthep Kritsanavarin

Fishers in northern Thailand netted this huge catfish in the Mekong River on May 1. Nearly nine feet long (2.7 meters) and as big as a grizzly bear, the behemoth tipped the scales at 646 pounds (293 kilograms). Experts say the fish, which belongs to the species known as the Mekong giant catfish, may be the largest freshwater fish ever recorded.

Thai fishers struggled for more than an hour to haul in the record-breaking Mekong giant catfish. Officials from Thailand's Inland Fishery Deparment then used a performance-enhancing drug to stimulate the pituitary gland of the female fish in order to prepare it for a breeding program (above). Despite efforts to keep the bear-size catfish alive, it died and was later eaten by villagers.

The species is listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. The rare specimen, captured in the Mekong River in Chiang Khong district, is the largest since Thailand began keeping records in 1981.

Thai fisheries officials had hoped to release this adult female Mekong giant catfish after they stripped it of eggs (above) for a captive-breeding program. But the whopping fish, which was as big a grizzly bear, didn't survive.

Listed a critically endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Mekong giant catfish is one of the world's largest freshwater fishes. Other contenders include the Chinese paddlefish and the dog-eating catfish—another Mekong River giant.

Editor's Note: It was initially reported incorrectly that the giant catfish caught in Thailand was male.

After a record-breaking Mekong giant catfish died, residents of Hat Khrai, a Thai village on the Mekong River, butchered the fish for its meat.

"Mekong people believe it's a sacred fish, because it persists on plant matter and 'meditates'"—in the deep, stony pools of the Mekong River—"somewhat like a Buddhist monk, said Zeb Hogan, a fisheries biologist who studies the largest freshwater fish in the world. A WWF conservation fellow and National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer, Hogan has received funding from the National Geographic Society Conservation Trust.

Mekong giant catfish attract high prices in Thailand, because eating the fish is supposed to bring good luck. Likewise, the Chinese believe that catfish meat boosts intelligence and prolongs life.

Mars Life May Be Contaminated by Spacecraft, Experts Warn

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News

July 26, 2005
Is there life on Mars? If there is, NASA might be contaminating it with microbes from Earth.

The concern prompted the Washington, D.C.-based National Research Council (NRC) to issue an advisory yesterday urging the U.S. space agency to adopt more stringent spacecraft-sterilization techniques.


Microbes (microscopic organisms that humans live with every day) can survive in much more extreme environments than previously believed—places of superheated temperatures, radiation, freezing cold, high salt concentrations, or extreme dryness.

"The science we've been operating on, gathered during the Viking 1 and 2 missions in the 1970s, is completely outdated," said University of California planetary scientist David Paige. Paige is also a member of the private, nonprofit NRC.

NASA's Viking landers were the first spacecraft to land on Mars and conduct scientific research. Viking 1 and Viking 2 landed on July 20 and September 3, 1976, respectively.

"The planetary protection policies that we have are rooted in the era of Viking. … ," Paige said. "Since then we've found that microbes are a lot more rugged than we originally thought," he added. "In addition, Mars might be more hospitable to life than we originally thought." For example, scientists have found evidence that there could be liquid water—which is necessary for life on Earth—at many places on the Mars. (See a photo of a "frozen sea" on Mars.)

Scaled-Back Sterilization

The early spacecraft that landed on Mars were thoroughly sterilized. But as money for the space program got tight, the expensive cleansing process was cut back.

Now that more is known about both Mars and microbes, the NRC is advising NASA to develop and implement new methods and rules to detect and eliminate microorganisms on robotic spacecraft. The techniques currently used to clean spacecraft only detect heat-resistant and spore-forming bacteria. The scientists are concerned that NASA's screening-and-cleaning process does not detect all the microbes that might be present on the spacecraft.

The advisory, which is based on a NASA-funded report by the NRC, recommends that all future landers be 100 percent sterilized. The NRC also suggests that NASA undertake a research program to find and test improved techniques within the next three years.