It has been a wonderful trip to Korea but the time has come for Patrick to head home. He has enjoyed learning about the different species in Korea and about the efforts of the government to protect the animals, plants and birds at risk. He was also really impressed with the children and young people in Korean schools. All the schools he visited were learning about climate change and nature. They were also trying to save energy and tackle climate change. Patrick also enjoyed meeting so many interesting people. 
The Koreans made him so welcome . He hopes to visit again one day to catch up with the friends he has made. He can’t wait for his next adventure! He’s always wanted to do a bit of skydiving….
Category Archives: PatrickPanda
Panda Reporter visits Korean schools
Patrick the Panda visited a middle school in Korea today. In Korea children go to middle school from ages 13 to 15. There are also elementary schools for younger children and high schools.
Patrick was delighted to see that many of the posters around the school were all about climate change. The posters were really colourful and were written in English too. 
The school were working hard to reduce the energy they were using too. It was another cold day in Seoul but the heating in the school was limited to just 18 degrees Celsius. This is national policy for all schools and government buildings to help tackle climate change.
Patrick also spotted that the school uniforms included a nice tartan design. Tartan seems to be quite popular in Korea – some of the teachers also had tartan ties.
Patrick is also amazed that there are not more traffic jams in Seoul. You would hardly think that 25 million people in the city. Most use the excellent metro system and buses to get around. This is just one of the other ways Korean’s are trying to protect the environment.
Patrick the Panda Reporter learns about the history of Korea
Here are some pictures Patrick the Panda Reporter took today…
These pictures show some of the statues outside the war memorial.
The statue of the brothers depicts a South Korean soldier meeting his brother from North Korea on the battlefield. It represents love, reconciliation and forgiveness. The big crack in the statue reminds people of how the two nations are still separated. 
Panda Reporter finds out about Korean vulnerable species
Today Patrick the Panda Reporter learned about some of the vulnerable and protected species in Korea. There are around 100,000 species in Korea but only 30,000 of them are recorded.
Within the national parks there are 15,000 species including 133 out of the 221 species that are considered endangered in Korea. There include birds, plants, reptiles, mammals and fish.
Panda reporter was sad to hear that the Asiatic Black Bear was one of those listed as being vulnerable. It is sometimes known as moon bear or white-chested bear. It is found in the Him alabaster, Russia, Indian sub-continent, Japan, Taiwan and also Korea.
The map shows where they can be found and the areas where they are becoming vulnerable or extinct. Their numbers are reducing because they are being hunted for body parts. Quite often their body parts are used in traditional medicine. They are also being out at risk because their forests are being cut down.
Black bears are good at climbing and walking on its rear legs. One was spotted walking for over a quarter of a mile!
Panda Reporter also had a chance to visit the National War Memorial in Seoul today. He was sad to hear that 1.5 million Koreans died in this conflict in 1950 – 1953. It is incredible to believe that it was only 60 years ago. The City of Seoul was destroyed in the war but is now very highly developed. The South Koreans have worked extremely hard to rebuild their capital city.
Mini pandas meet the giant pandas!
What a busy Friday I had! My fellow panda friends from
Borestone, Middleton Park and St. Ninian’s and some pupils visited Edinburgh Zoo to learn about the giant pandas and find out about the work being done by the staff at the zoo to protect and research about them. They were lucky enough to see both Yang Guang and Tian Tian. They learned that us Pandas can eat 40kg of bamboo a day and that there are two separate enclosures as they might not get along if they we’re put in together!
We hope the pupils have been inspired by their visit to go back to their schools and find out more about conservation issues in their local environments. I’m looking forward to seeing citizen science activities they’re taking part in; collecting data and using that data and passing it on to scientists. Some schools will be using the OPAL surveys to learn about air, soil and water quality in their school grounds and others will be using the BRISC surveys to investigate biodiversity.
Get blogging so I can read all about it!
Patrick the Panda
Patrick the Panda investigates ponds in Glasgow!
Patrick the panda is getting ready to go exploring the pond at Queens Park in Glasgow. He’ll be using the OPAL water survey to find out about the quality of the water there. Are there lots of invertebrates there or is the cold weather keeping them away?
Matt, the OPAL scientist, has provided Patrick the panda with a water survey pack – it has a guide to identifying different species. Patrick also used the guide to find out that if the water is healthy then there may be species such as dragonfly larvae, but if the water is not very good quality then he might only find species such as pond skaters and water shrimps.
After he’s surveyed the pond he’ll need to remember to submit his information to the OPAL website so that scientists can use it to better understand the health of Scotland’s ponds.
Why don’t you have a look at the OPAL website and see if there are surveys you could carry out in your school grounds.
Remember- Patrick will go with a sensible grown-up to look at the pond- make sure you do too!
