Monday, October 13, 2008

Pandas

On Friday, Oda, Magda and I went to the zoo and the aquarium and then on Saturday morning Chuck and I went back. So here is one chapter just on the pandas. There are 13 pandas in all. 5 big ones and 8 babies (about a year old.) The babies came from Wulong panda preserve for the Olympics. They were in the earthquake and then moved shortly thereafter. If you saw an adorable you tube film with the pandas boiling out of their house and up a tree, these might have been the ones.

This was the only large one that was active. The rest were sleeping. He kept traveling around his enclosure until we found out why. He was waiting for his shower! He loved his shower and would have stayed there for as long as the keeper was willing to spray him with the hose. He turned around so it would hit all parts.

I am hoping that you can see the movies. Here in China I haven't been able to.





The first day most of the babies were sleeping too. There is one in the foreground and the rest were in a heap on the platform.

One of them was munching on some bamboo. The pandas in captivity are being encouraged to widen their diet. They get apples, buns, carrots and chicken broth as well as the bamboo. The babies get milk, too.


The second day was really special. Just as we got to the window of the baby pandas, the zoo keeper came out with a pan with bread buns. There were only 4 pandas outside, but they all started running after him. He ran around the enclosure 3 times and they were following along. (Sometimes taking a short cut, so they would stay with him.)






He finally gave each of them a roll and they chomped happily.





The greedy guts of the group finished early and tried to steal one from a friend. His buddy held him off with his foot, but he was very persistent. The keepers finally got into it to keep him away so that no one would get hurt. They tried putting the metal pan on his head and over his eyes to distract him. They tried dragging him away. He kept going back. Finally he ate all the crumbs from the other one's tummy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Joan! Panda photos and videos are wonderful. What a fun time for you!
Ellen