Chengdu and the Pandas

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Many people’s sole purpose for visiting Chengdu is to see the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center. While the center has been very successful in breeding the pandas, it seems to be supported by a zoo exclusively for Giant and Red Pandas. It’s not a bad zoo in general, the habitats for the pandas are pretty large and they are fed well and only their natural diet (I think mainly because they are too picky to eat anything else), so all in all it isn’t a bad place for a zoo. But in general, I do hate zoos.

Anyway, the provincial government of Sichuan, and the national government, are been taking great care to preserve the Giant Panda, which is a good thing because the animal does very little to help themselves. There is a population in the wild of around 1,000, which continues to be threatened by human encroachment. However, part of the tour of the habitat was a film on the mating, breeding and mothering habits of the pandas, and it’s a wonder they didn’t go extinct thousands of years ago.

First, these animals are so solitary that they have difficulty even finding each other in the wild and even when a pair should find each other, if the female decides she doesn’t like the male, then she completely rebuffs him and they have to find another possible mate. That is why most of the births of pandas in world zoos have been through invetro. However, even then there was a shock.

The film showed a first time mother giving birth to twins. She found it so unexpected and so frightening when these weak, yelping, pink things came out of her and landed on the ground, that she began not so gently, batting them around her cage, until one of the keepers was able to go in and snatch them out. So, if that happens in the wild also, you can discount any first pregnancy resulting in any living offspring.

However, they showed the same mother after her second pregnancy…she had developed into the perfect mother; delivering the baby with easy and holding it gently on her belly; nursing and caring for the baby like a pro. So, I guess they do learn, but it was amazing.

Finally, they are very picky about what they eat, which is bamboo, but only certain types of bamboo, which evidently is being rabidly destroyed by humans. The good thing is that the Chinese government has some pretty strict laws and harsh punishments for killing a panda, and I think they have set aside some land as reserves, but economic growth comes first, so that land may not stay reserved for long.

So, my pictures show the Giant Panda and also the Red Panda, which is closely related to the raccoon, but evidently the raccoon and pandas are somehow related to bears and each other by common ancestors. One last thing about the pandas…you’ll notice a picture of someone holding a red panda. The pandas could be held; 50 RMB for a red panda; 400 RMB to pet a Giant Panda; and 1000 RMB to hold a baby Giant panda.

My next two weeks will be spent in and around Chengdu. I’ve had to do a bit of scrambling of the last few days, because in China the May-day holiday or International Labor Day is actually a week-long holiday (May 1-7). Evidently, the trains, buses and lodgings all over China become extremely difficult or impossible to get. So, the coming week I will spend on Emei Mountain hiking and sleeping in monasteries, while next week, during the holiday, I’ll spend 4 days on horse-back riding around the mountains of northern Sichuan province in the area near the town of Songpan.

It should be interesting, if nothing else, and should result in some amazing picture

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Comments

[tiff]

pandas are cute
wow! that's awesome joel!