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Published: March 19th 2006
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A few years ago I traveled to Borneo to visit an Orangutan Sanctuary, set a few miles into the rain forest. A pleasant place where they use their limited resources to rehabilitate captured Orangutans, mostly young orphans, thanks to poachers, back into the wild. I was lucky enough, at the time, to have a close and personal encounter with a nursing female Orangutan and her baby, on a path in the jungle.
This image fogged my judgment as I signed for a trip to "The Giant Panda Breeding Research Ctr." of Chengdu, in Southern China.
THE GIANT PANDA INCIDENT
The first impression I had, coming off the bus from central Chengdu, was of Sea World. The second was the San Diego zoo.
A few minutes later, together with my group of some 26 other eager tourists, I listened attentively to the guide's instructions, while other groups of tourists were getting their pep talk just a few feet away.
We started our walk up a paved and very nicely groomed path. Pretty gardens and man-made lakes pleased our visual senses as we approached the first “enclosure”. Politically correct word for a cage with no bars. "Subdivisions" instead of
2 GIANT PANDAS
a bit confusing - but 2 of them "track homes".
Shoulder to shoulder, we stretched our necks and our digital zooms to get the first glimpse of the Pandas. Oops, sorry, The Giant Panda.
-Nice and Friendly Guide: "Blah, blah.....Pandas are solitary animals. They spend two-thirds of their day (16 hours) feeding, and the remainder of the day resting."
-Smiley tourist # 3:"Look at them, They are soooo cute"
-Zeev thinking:" Tourist #3 looks like she breaks the Panda eating record - regularly."
-Nice and Friendly Guide: "The Giant Panda is not very adaptable to the environment."
-Smiley tourist # 13:"They are soooo cute"
-Smiley tourist # 343:"They are soooo cute"
-Zeev thinking: "How did they beat the evolutionary odds?"
-Smiley tourist # 7:"look how the Panda pees, so cute"
-Zeev thinking: "peeing is very important for mammals -in fact, it is a must. Would it be so cute if it was a hyena peeing?"
-Nice and Friendly Guide:" They are very solitary creatures, for most of the year, individual Giant Pandas use fairly small home ranges: In good habitat they can find all the bamboo they need without moving very far"
-Smiley tourist # 24:"Cute,
GIANT PANDA again
in case you don not recognize the creature cute, cute"
-Zeev thinking:" This agoraphobic vertebrate is an enigma. Slow and lazy on top of it all."
We moved to another enclosure, and watch a Panda with droopy big eyes munching on bamboo, with enthusiasm of an IRS employee.
-Nice and Friendly Guide: "A wild Giant Panda's diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo. When the few Bamboo species the Panda favors are not available, the Panda can die from starvation."
-Tourist # 7.5 (from Germany):" Luk et ze Panda, Her is K'yoot, Aber ze fence arownd Him iz not perfekt shtraight."
-Zeev thinking: "Such a picky eater - I admire coyote's adaptability much better."
-Nice and Friendly Guide: "female giant pandas conceive only during their two- to three -day estrous period, which occurs just once a year in the spring, and they show no interest in mating at any other time."
-Zeev thinking:" Let me get this straight - once a year sex for about 3 days? I will NOT, and I repeat, NOT talk about this!!!!"
-Nice and Friendly Guide:" ... they are very picky in choosing a mate."
-Smiley tourist #3:" Giggle, giggle. cute cute cute.
What ??
free use of sewing kits ?????? -Zeev thinking:" AAAAAAAAAAGGGGRRRRRRRR !!!"
From there we strolled leisurely towards the petting corner where a lucky wealthy tourist is offered a few precious moments of holding on his lap, petting and picture taking, a Giant Panda in exchange for his hard earned $80. Same with a baby Giant Panda for $160. In Los Angles a lap dance will run you 20 bucks, though some of the dancers are as hairy as the Panda, and you can't show the pictures in a family reunion.
-Smiley tourist #3:" Giggle,giggle.cute cute cute.
-Zeev thinking: "SEX ONCE A YEAR ????? ."
Later, we found ourselves facing the enclosure of the "Red Pandas". Some colossal Darwinian mistake was enclosed in this lash green garden. This poor reddish long tailed creature had nothing to do with the bear family. I could see the agonizing look on their furry faces, trying in vain to claim their true alliance with the raccoon family. But the sign said "Red Panda Bear" - in two languages - so they must be bears. Darwin would have had a field day with this one. And for the new generation of students in the US - “The Intelligence
Red Panda
"i am NOT a panda !!!" Intervention" would have had a field day with this one.
Something else, in my opinion, made them "red" - the degrading price tag on lap holding - petting- picture taking. Only $20 for the red pandas.
As we kept navigating our way, on the well marked paths, I found myself wondering more and more how manipulative this cute (yes I said cute) creature is. Cute, cute - here, I said it again.
Every fact we learned that day, undeniably increased my believe in the miraculous escape of the Giant Pandas from evolutionary extinction.
The only asset these cute huggable lovable mammals have are their cuteness, and they managed to exploit it to the max. Just like back home, in Hollywood - it is all about the look.
Cute!!
Cute!!
Cute!!
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Marie
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Thanks
I was very happy to have read your journal entry on the pandas and red pandas and to have seen those photos. Thanks for sharing these!!!