Last Wednesday, Yuan Zai the panda officially began independent life. As soon as she entered her enclosure she started clambering up and down her perches and crunching on the bamboo with her teeth, but she was also searching everywhere as if looking for her mother to feed her. According to the zoo, Yuan Zai is being weaned off her mother’s milk, much like human babies are, and this searching behavior is expected to be seen over the next three to five days.
The zoo estimates that after Yuan Zai was officially presented for public viewing on Jan. 6 last year, 2,909,201 visits to the Giant Panda House, using the “panda-visiting tickets,” have been made.
(Liberty Times, translated by Paul Cooper)
大貓熊「圓仔」周三正式展開獨立生活,一進展場就大顯身手,在棲木爬上爬下,還大嗑竹筍,但隨即四處探索,似乎想找媽媽討奶喝。動物園說,圓仔就像人類小孩斷奶,類似探索行為估計在未來三到五天仍有機會出現。
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
圖為台北市立動物園提供
動物園統計,自去年一月六日圓仔正式見客以來,一年來動物園吸引兩百九十萬九千兩百零一人次,透過參觀券造訪貓熊館。
(自由時報記者謝佳君)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
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