20 Sep 2010 - Tensions between old rivals Japan and China over disputed sea waters are on the rise again. China traditionally uses its panda diplomacy to calm things down, but it may think twice before sending more pandas to Japan. Last week, the death of giant panda Kou Kou in the Oji Zoo in Kobe created a stir. Kou Kou died of cardiac arrest after failing to recover from an anaesthetic. Veterinarians has sedated the 14-year-old male as part of a programme to impregnate his partner. Experts believe Kou Kou may have died from an overdose of sedatives and questioned why the vets were extracting semen outside the animal's mating period. There are only 1600 pandas left in the wild. Nearly 300 others are in captive-breeding programmes. Pandas are notoriously slow at reproducing in captivity.
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