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
