Munching on bamboo and lazing under a fan spraying cooling mist, "Jackie Chan" is in a relaxed mood, one of three red pandas once destined for the exotic wildlife trade but now instead settling into a new home in a leafy Laos sanctuary.

The three animals, nicknamed Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Peace, were among six found stuffed into crates during a random check of a van traveling from China over the border into northern Laos in January.

Dehydrated and lacking food, three died within days, while the survivors were taken to a sanctuary run by the non-profit Free the Bears in the hills around the tourist hotspot of Luang Prabang.

It was "very very hard" to save the three who perished, says Sengaloun Vongsay, Laos programme manager for Free the Bears.

It was the first discovery of red pandas in Laos, experts said, fueling fears the endangered species may be the latest targets of the illegal pet industry, coveted for their shiny copper fur and "cute" appearance.

"They're eating well, they're generally pretty relaxed," said Michelle Walhout Tanneau, operations manager for Free the Bears.

Landlocked Laos is a key transit hub in the illegal and lucrative global trade in wildlife, sharing borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

In January Thai authorities arrested Boonchai Bach, a Vietnamese national with Thai citizenship and an alleged kingpin in Asia's illegal wildlife trade, for rhino horn trafficking.

Boonchai and the Bach family are believed to have operated for years from northeast Thailand bordering Laos, where law enforcement is weak and corruption widespread.

Freeland, a counter-trafficking organisation that worked with Thai police on his case, on Friday said the 41-year-old Boonchai was this week jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Laos' government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the red panda seizure, though Free the Bears said that one Chinese national had been arrested over the find.

With their forest habitats under threat, red panda populations in Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar are vulnerable.

Free the Bears has provided temporary enclosures and set aside a section of tree-covered land where the red pandas could live in case they could not be released back into the wild.

The two superstar nicknames were given by staff, while "Peace" was chosen by a donor.

Rod Mabin, a spokesman for the non-profit, said the group was consulting with experts and the red pandas would live in the sanctuary for the foreseeable future.

"Ultimately we'll try to make the decision which is best for the future health and safety of the animals and to provide them the best life possible," he said.

Deadly frog fungus traced to Korea, sparks call for halt to pet trade
Tampa (AFP) May 10, 2018 - Scientists have traced a deadly fungus responsible for killing frogs, toads and newts worldwide to the Korean peninsula, sparking new calls for a halt to the international amphibian pet trade.

A dangerous infectious disease with the potential to drive species to extinction, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is also known as chytrid fungus.

The skin infection, passed from animals in the wild to pets, causes chytridiomycosis, which affects amphibians' ability to regulate water and electrolytes and may lead to heart failure.

"Biologists have known since the 1990s that Bd was behind the decline of many amphibian species, but until now we haven't been able to identify exactly where it came from," said Simon O'Hanlon, of the department of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, co-author of the report in the journal Science.

"In our paper, we solve this problem and show that the lineage which has caused such devastation can be traced back to East Asia."

An international team of scientists gathered samples of the pathogen from around the world, and sequenced the genomes.

They found four main genetic lineages of the fungus -- three of which are found around the world, and a fourth found only in native frogs in Korea.

The genetic analysis showed that "the range of the disease expanded greatly between 50 and 120 years ago, coinciding with the rapid global expansion of intercontinental trade," said the report.

The findings offer "strong evidence for a ban on trade in amphibians from Asia, due to the high risk associated with exporting previously unknown strains of chytrid out of this region," it added.

Another pathogen affecting salamanders in Europe -- (B. salamandrivorans or BSal) -- also emerged from Asia and is spreading via the global trade in pet amphibians.

"Our research not only points to East Asia as ground zero for this deadly fungal pathogen, but suggests we have only uncovered the tip of the iceberg of chytrid diversity in Asia," said Imperial College London professor Matthew Fisher.

"Therefore, until the ongoing trade in infected amphibians is halted, we will continue to put our irreplaceable global amphibian biodiversity recklessly at risk."

In an accompanying Perspective article in Science, Karen Lips -- of the University of Maryland's biology department -- concurred, saying the findings show that current efforts to control the deadly fungus have not been successful.

"The authors show that all Bd variants are present in the commercial trade of amphibians (including food, pets, and scientific specimens)," she wrote.

This demonstrates "contemporary intercontinental transmission and the failure of international biosecurity measures to control the spread of this pathogen."

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In Japan-China ties, ibis outreach but no panda diplomacy
Tokyo (AFP) May 9, 2018
China has famously used its cuddly panda bears as a diplomatic tool, but to mark warming ties with Japan it is offering a distinctly more angular gift: two crested ibises. To some, the bird might not appear much of a looker: it has a bright red face with a long narrow beak that curves downward, and its eponymous crest resembles the wispy white mullet of an ageing rocker. But after Japan's last wild crested ibis died in 2003, rendering the species extinct in its homeland, the country has looked a ... read more