Sunshine Nursery, Moonlight Nursery, and No.14@CRBGPB

Today was my day off, so I went to
Chengdu Panda Base to watch behaviors
and take pictures of Pandas.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog post,
the weather in Chengdu is like summer, and the Pandas
stay outside only for a few hours in the morning.

This is YaYa taking care of ErXi and YuanZhou.
YaYa (aged 21, female) gave birth to YaYun last September,
and although ErXi and YuanZhou are not YaYa's cubs,
YaYa takes great care of them. This is usual behaviours
for captive mother Pandas at Chengdu Panda Base.
A mother takes care of other cubs,
and the cubs learn how to survive from multiple
mothers. In the wild, mother Pandas take care
of their cub for more than a year,
and during that time the cub learns a lot
from their mothers. In captivity, some mother
Pandas start to prepare for next years breeding programs,
and therefor the child starts their own lives
from an early age. It is said that this is one of the reasons
that most male captive Pandas are not capable of
natural mating.

YaYa has a round and kind face, and the way she
looks at the cubs is just the same as humans.

ErXi was playing in the pond. Probably because
it was so hot.

ErXi smells the leaves to sees if he can eat them.
ErXi is Shu Hin (Chinese name Qiu Bang)'s
first child born by Artificial Insemination.
A few weeks ago ErXi was sick and was in the hospital
for a few days, but now his health is back to normal.
I was so happy to see him again!

"Can I eat this?"

"Ahhh, maybe not!"

This is the outside playground at Sunshine nursery.
Can you see that there are two 2010 born Pandas
in this picture? I will let you know where they are
in my blog post tomorrow!

2010 born Pandas are curious about everything
they see and do. This one went high up, and was
swining back and forth.

But then started to take a nap.

This is WuYi (aged 4, Male) and
YaZai (Aged 4, Female).
They are the only male and female
Pandas that live in the same enclosure
together at Chengdu Panda Base as far as I know.
They both have a good appetite,
and were eating all the time while I was there.

WuYi's name is "五一" in Chinese
and it means 51. He was born 51g, which is
even tiny for a Panda, but survived with the
help of keepers. Usually a baby Panda weighs
around 100g-150g.















Then YaZai moved close to WuYi to have lunch
together. They seem to be more closer than last year!
Maybe he was successful in showing off his charm?

In the end, this is RyuHin (Chinese name, Long Bang).
He is in No. 14 enclosure where
KouHin (Chinese name XingBang)
stayed last year during Project Panda.
I was happy to see that RyuHin also loves the
same spot that KouHin loved.

Tomorrow I will take care of KouHin (XingBang)!
Can't wait to meet him soon.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

隆浜 Long Bang and Young Cubs enclosure@Chengdu Panda Base

Hello everyone!

Today was my first day at Chengdu Panda Base.
Now it is mating season for the Giant Pandas,
and the keepers are busy taking care of Pandas
and tourists. The Chinese National holiday starts
from 30 April to 2 May, and there are so many
tourists at this season.

However, it is not the "best season" for Pandas
because it is too hot here in Chengdu.
As many people know, Giant Pandas are animals
that live high up in the mountains. They are
very active during winter with snow
and the cold weather, but during summer time
they are very quiet and do not move much.

At lunch time, 隆浜 Long Bang
(Japan born) was eating bamboo
in his inside enclosure.
Most of the Pandas stay outside for
a few hours in the morning, and stay
inside for the rest to keep cool.

"HAHA, I love bamboo!"
Long Bang doesn't eat much Panda cakes,
and he prefers bamboo. It is good
for his health because usually wild pandas
eat lots of bamboo every day.
He is 103kg, a little bit small for his age,
but he is healthy and is preparing for mating.
I wonder who will be his future wife.

His white eyepatches makes him look charming!

"Woops, do I know you?"

"Am I beautiful?"

This is one of my favorite angles!
LongBang has beautiful fan shaped ears.
He is the son of 永明(Yong Ming) in
Adventure World Shirahama.

In the afternoon, I went to the
Young Cubs enclosure where the 4 Pandas
QiQi, ZhiZhi, WenLi (known as DaDa)
and YaLi (Known as Xiao Xiao)
born in 2009 are being taken great
care of by Mr. Tang, one of my
favorite keepers.
On the left is QiQi, right is ZhiZhi.
(I don't know who it is lying down in the front...)

QiQi enjoying bamboo shoot.
Now she weighs more than 40kg!
Last year when we were doing activities
at Panda Base as Pambassadors,
we were able to go inside, take care and
play with them. Now we cannot go inside.
They are growing so fast!

YaLi got so excited and
started to climb the bar.

The four have moved to the Young Cub's enclosure
a few days ago, and the keeper Mr. Tang
can already recognize each one!
When he calls their names, the Pandas
come to say Hi.

During my 2 weeks stay,
I will take care of XingBang, Long Bang,
2010 borns (ErXi and six more), MeiLan and others.
I will upload as much pictures as I can.
My activity starts from 1 May, so stay tuned!

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Li Li and Shin Shin make their public debut @ Ueno Zoo April 1 2011

Today, finally the two Giant Pandas
力力 Li Li and 真真 Shin Shin that
arrived from BiFengXia Panda Base
have made their public debut
at Ueno Zoo. It has been 3 years
since the last Panda Lin Lin
died at Ueno Zoo.

The schedule of their
public appearance has been
delayed due to the
terrible earthquake that had
occurred in Japan.
According to Mr. Kurotori
at Ueno Zoo, the two Pandas
were restless for a while by
the earthquake, but they had
good appetite and bamboo supply
had been steady all through.

This morning, I arrived at the entrance
before 8am. CCTV China gave me the
great opportunity to go inside with them
before the visitors entered the zoo.
There were already more than thousands of
visitors waiting in a line outside the gate.

This is the outside playground
for Li Li and Shin Shin.
Bamboo had been placed,
waiting for Li Li and Shin Shin
to arrive.
All the media was excited
to see the two Pandas.

This is Li Li 133kg.
He looks very healthy after
39 days of preparation
after his arrival in Japan.

He slowly came to the
outside playground and
started to enjoy bamboo.
He sat by the window,
right near the media people.

He walks around and peaks out
to Shin Shin's playground.
He seems to like Shin Shin very much.

But he is a very shy boy,
and walks behind tree trunks
whenever there are too many
people in front of his playground.
He acts just the same way
as when he was in BiFengXia.

In the afternoon, Li Li and Shin Shin
were moved to the inside enclosure.
Li Li shows off his bamboo to us.

This is Shin Shin 113kg.
She seems to enjoy all the
people watching her with a beautiful round face.

"HAHA, I love Japanese bamboo!"

21,886 people visited Ueno Zoo today,
and many tourists are expected to
come to meet the Pandas.

Beautiful Cherry blossom at Ueno.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara