France Creates New Fuel Source Using Panda Poo!

Pandas and Bamboo are the perfect combo to create fuel! Pandas eat so much bamboo that their poo is almost completely made out of bamboo fibers which makes it easy to burn as a fuel source = giving us PANDA POWER! The Beauval zoo in France announced it would build a facility that would process the dung of Yuan Zi and Huan Huan ("Chubby" and "Happy" in Chinese) and of other animals, as well as plant matter, to produce biogas that will then be turned into heat and electricity. The plant, which will cost 2.3 million euros ($3 million) and is expected to be operative in the spring of 2014.

Some of the energy produced will be used to keep gorillas and manatees -- also known as sea cows -- warm in their pens, and to heat the building that houses elephants in the winter, allowing a 40 percent saving on the gas bill. The rest will be transformed into electricity and sold to French power giant EDF. "This initiative is a perfect fit in the policy of sustainable development that we have been applying for a long time," said Delphine Delord, spokeswoman for the zoo.

Bamboo is a wonder plant with many useful benefits. Bamboo provides food for humans as well as pandas and can also be used to feed livestock. Bamboo can be grown on every continent except Antarctica. Bamboo is very eco-friendly as a fuel source because it is one of the world's fastest-growing plants. Some species can grow nearly four feet in a day!

Pandas are an endangered species and only about 1,600 remain in the wild in China. Some 300 others are in captivity worldwide -- mostly in China, but also in 15 foreign zoos where they are sent as part of Beijing's efforts to use soft power to boost its image, the so-called "panda diplomacy." They eat 35 kilos (78 pounds) of bamboo a day and defecate about 30 kilos a day, making them prime candidates for this green initiative.