Pandas - Experience of a Lifetime

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We spent one full day on our trip at the Chengdu Panda Base and Research Center working in their International Internship Program. We can’t say enough for this program. What a wonderful experience that we will remember for a lifetime.

We started our day mixing food for a seven year old female Panda named Ya Xing. We were told that she was the weaker of twins but seems to be doing just fine now. She is very gentle and as you can see in the photos, we were able to reach in her cage and pet her. After feeding Ya Xing her formula (for nutrients) we were able to give her apples. This is her treat for being a good girl. She was then let out into her outside habitat and we started to clean her overnight pen and the overnight pen of four adolescent pandas. OK, so a little work for all of the fun we were having. We had to separate the poop from the bamboo shoots so it could be weighed. Then we had to haul off the waste and sweep and wash the pens. This was really not as bad as I thought it would be. I’m sure they have you do all of these duties so you can experience all of the tasks that the keeper has to do several times a day. I can tell you this must be a labor of love for them. We then went outside and using a cane pole, feed the adolescents apples. Yes, we had to wash and cut them up first. I really mean we had to do everything.

We were then given three hours to tour the park and have some lunch before we went back for the afternoon session. Ya Xing was ready for her afternoon meal so we prepared it for her and feed her. We then spread some bamboo shoots in her indoor pen. She really seemed to appreciate them.

Then time to call in the adolescents. The keeper just opened up the door to their indoor pen and called for them to come in. Three came in right away. We asked about the forth one and were told he is the trouble maker and is always the last to come in. It took a lot of calling but he finally came in. They had a really clean pen to come into since we had taken care of it in the morning and what did they do. Oh yeah. Well at least we didn’t have to clean it up this time. We were able to give them some bamboo shoots first and then they were put into a smaller pen so we could feed them nutrition cakes and apples. Then they got a bath. How fun was this. Well at least for us. I don’t think they really liked being sprayed with water but we do need to stay clean.

While they were inside we went out into their outside habitat and cleaned up the bamboo from the morning and replaced it with fresh. Then they were let back out. We took out some bamboo and tossed it to them. Boy does this attract the tourist. I can’t imagine how many pictures we are in! Our last task was to pick one of the adolescents and track their behavior for a half hour. It went by really fast since we had to write down what they were doing every 30 seconds.

Then the day had to come to an end. We received our certificates that state we completed the course and left one of the most memorable events that we have ever had.

There are only 1000 giant pandas left in the wild so this center is doing an amazing job to insure we will have these gentle giants forever.

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Comments

[Judy Wilson]

Pandas
What a cool experience. I have been following your blog and it is all so exciting. I think that is the neatest that you got to be so close to the pandas.

[Annette]

Great experience, i regret that i didn't go there!