ErXi @ Sunshine Nursery, CRBGPB

It has been raining a lot in Chengdu
for the past few days. Finally
this morning it was cloudy but the
perfect weather for Pandas!

I went to the Sunshine Nursery to
take care of the 2010 born cubs.
ErXi was on top of a tree as usual
looking down on me from high above.
"Hellooo Yumi, would you like me to
come down for you?"

ErXi did his Chinese acrobatics on the branch.

Sometimes he looked at me to make sure
if I was paying attention to his cute behavior.

All the 2010 born cubs have grown
so big in the past few weeks, and it
is getting hard for me to hold them
or keep them close to me.

ErXi took his time to show off his
wonderful performance to the audience.

When Pandas come down from trees,
they keep their heads up because their
head is very heavy. They can't climb
down heads first.

As soon as ErXi came down
from his tree, I fed him with his favorite apple.

He looked so happy with his apple.

He even closed his eyes to enjoy the taste.

ErXi on the left and JiaoQing on the right.
They were both born in July last year.

ErXi reached out for some branch
he found when he was walking around.

ErXi and JiaoQing played together
for a long time.

I found one more apple that some other
cub left on the ground and gave it to
ErXi. Again he showed off his apples to me.

Now ErXi looks more and more like his
father ShuHin (QiuBang). He's the
easiest one to recognize among all
seven of the 2010 born cubs.

ErXi was very active and playful this morning,
ran around, ate a lot and climbed trees
many times. He sometimes held on to thin branches,
broke it and nearly fell down a couple of times.
Pandas are so flexible, and even if they
fall off from trees, usually they're not hurt.

We took a picture together.

I will be away from Chengdu from 31 July to 10 August.
I will start my blog posts again when I am back in Chengdu.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

AiLi born on July 24 @ Sunshine Nursery, CRBGPB

It has been 4 days since AiLi was born
on July 24 at the Chengdu Panda Base.
AiLi's mother LiLi is nursing her all day
except from when the keepers have to
weigh AiLi to make sure she is being
breast fed.

Lucky visitors can see AiLi in her incubator for a
few minutes everyday.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Happy Birthday ErXi and KeBi @ CRBGPB

This morning, I went to the Sunshine Nursery
to see ErXi. ErXi is ShuHin (QiuBang)'s first cub
that was born on July 26 2010.
Today is his birthday.
Happy Birthday ErXi!

ErXi has been spending time with YaYa
for the past few days. ErXi is lucky
that he is the only cub with YaYa at this time,
and he is learning important behaviors from YaYa.

Whenever YaYa eats bamboo,
ErXi follows her and pretends that
he can eat bamboo too.
The 2010 born cubs do not eat bamboo
yet. All the nutrition they take in so far is
bamboo shoot, milk, apples and
watermelons.

ErXi tried to grab YaYa's bamboo.

YaYa has good appetite, and no matter how hard
ErXi tried to pull bamboo from her,
she never let go and continued eating.
ErXi was covered all over with bamboo.
It looked like he was drowning.

After a while, ErXi got tired pretending eating bamboo,
and he slowly walked away from YaYa.

Then he took his morning bath.

And started drinking some water from the pond.

Everyday in the morning and in the evening,
keepers feed all seven of the cubs with milk.
Today I gave ErXi his milk.
After he finished his own milk,
he went to get some more from his friends.
It's amazing that the cubs are growing
so fast although they don't eat much.

Today was also KeBi's birthday.
Happy Birthday KeBi!

Tomorrow I will go to the quarantine area
to take care of ShuHin (QiuBang).

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

First cub born this year @ Sunshine Nursery, CRBGPB

The first cub of this year at
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
was born on July 24, 2011 at 2:51pm.
She was 161g when her mother LiLi gave birth.
2011年7月24日午後2時51分、成都パンダ基地で
今年はじめての赤ちゃんが誕生しました。
161ｇの元気な女の子です。
お母さんは莉莉。

Her cute tail is long and pink!
She spends most of the time with her mother
LiLi, and LiLi is taking great care of her tiny
cub 24 hours a day. The only time
the cub spends away from her mother
is when the keepers weigh her to make sure
she is being breast fed.
When the keeper tries to take the cub
away from LiLi, LiLi holds her
cub tightly so that she doesn't have to
let go of her. Even when LiLi takes a nap,
she never lets go of her cub.
長いピンク色の尻尾が愛らしいですね。
お母さんのリーリーはこの小さな赤ちゃんを
24時間体制で育てています。赤ちゃんが
しっかり母乳を飲めているかどうか
体重測定をするために、数時間に一回
飼育員が赤ちゃんをお母さんから引き離すのですが、
リーリーはギュッと赤ちゃんを抱きしめて
なかなか離そうとしません。

When the cub stays in the incubator for
a few minutes, her face is wrapped up
with a soft towel to keep her calm.
This is to make sure that the cub
feels safe when she is away from her mother
and to keep her warm.
体重測定の後は数分間保育器の中で
体温測定や健康診断を行います。
赤ちゃんが安心するように柔らかいタオルを顔に乗せて
体温が落ちないようしっかり観察します。
パンダの赤ちゃんは超未熟児で生まれるため、
しばらくは自力で体温調整をすることが出来ません。
そのため、お母さんパンダは自分の食事もほとんどとらず
一日中赤ちゃんをお腹に乗せて暖めてあげないといけないんです。

It was the first time for me to see the mother panda
give birth to a cub, and it was one of the greatest
moments of my life.
I will update information as much as I can
in my blog posts in the coming days.
生まれてはじめてパンダの出産に立ち会いましたが、
赤ちゃんが大きな産声をあげた瞬間に
成都パンダ基地のスタッフと感動を分かち合えたことを、
本当に嬉しく思います。
これほど素晴らしい経験が出来るとは、
想像したこともありませんでした。
今後の赤ちゃんの成長過程について、
ブログで更新していきたいと思います。
お楽しみに！

Tomorrow July 26 is ErXi's birthday.
ErXi has been spending time with YaYa for the
past few days, and YaYa is taking great
care of him. Tomorrow I will be at the
Sunshine Nursery again.
ところで、明日7月26日は秋浜の始めての子
二喜（あーちゃん）の1歳の誕生日です。ここ数日、
あーちゃんはYaYa（2010年生まれ7頭の
面倒を見ているスーパーお母さん）と過ごしています。
明日も太陽産房に行きます。


Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara
パンダ大使　梶原裕美子

JiaoQing, YuanLin and ErXi @ Sunshine Nursery, CRBGPB

Today I went to the Sunshine Nursery
to clean YaYa's enclosure and take
care of the 2010 born cubs.
In the morning we had heavy rain at the
Chengdu Panda Base, and all the cubs were
more active than ever! I think the cubs love
rainy and stormy weathers.
The five cubs, JiaoQing, YuanLin, YuanZhou,
ZhenHao and YaYun were running and rolling
around all morning. It was so dark and the
rain was too heavy, and I couldn't take
any pictures.

In the afternoon, as soon as I arrived
JiaoQing came running towards me
with a warm welcome.
"Hi, Yumi, I have become one year old
on July 15. I'm growing so big and
I'm strong!"

JiaoQing came to bite my keeper boots.
He had been with YaYa everytime I go to
see him, and it had been a while since we last
spent some time together.

He loves our keeper boots.
But he sometimes bites my knees too, but he
looks in my eyes to make sure he's not hurting me.

This is YuanLin.
He was on a tree taking a nap.

He came down to see me.
His favorite tree is hard to climb because
it is covered with bamboo on the bottom
part. Only three cubs can climb this tree
and they are so proud of themselves.

He slowly approached the pond.

He sat there for a while to think what
he should do next.

He suddenly became active,
and came for my boots.
I wish I was as attactive as my boots...

He pretended to eat some leaves
that are not bamboo.

He walked along the walls for a while.

"I'm good at walking around.
I'm fit!"

Boots again.

The way he looked up at me was cute.

He ran and rolled around for a while,
which made him so dirty!!! He had
mud all over his face.

Whenever I am at the Sunshine Nursery,
some cubs are high above on trees
sleeping, but some are really active.
JiaoQing, YuanLin and YaYun
are the really active ones, and they seem
to be awake most of the times.
When they are tired of playing
they climb their favorite tree to take a nap.
Cubs never sleep on the ground,
and this is to protect themselves from enemies.

"HAHAHA, I'm dirty all over
but cute, aren't I?"

YaYa was in her inside enclosure
in the afternoon.

Today she was taking care of ErXi.
The cubs take turns everyday to spend time
with YaYa.

YaYa is nearly 21 years old and takes care of seven 2010 born
cubs. She barely has her own time, but whenever
she is with the cubs, she takes great care of them.
She's such a wonderful mother.

ErXi had lots of energy left, and he tried to
force YaYa to wake up and play with him.
It's nice to see YaYa taking care of ErXi
as if ErXi was her own son.
"Lets play together! Or you can breast feed me!"















Tomorrow I will be at the Sunshine Nursery again.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara