Vacation @ Chengdu Panda Base-2

Hello everyone!
This is the Sunshine Nursary.
4 beautiful 1 year old cubs live together
in this enclosure.One is missing in this
picture though, probablly she's
hiding in front of the door so that she
can sneek inside to have some Panda Cakes!

They have grown so big and strong in the
past few weeks!!
This cute one is trying to play with me.
They are curious about everything, and
once they find someone that wants to play with them,
they come running towards us.

In the morning, they were running around,
climbing trees and sometimes taking a rest.

Calm!! Only sometimes.....

Look how wet she is!
She rolled into the pond with her
friend, and I was also pushed into the
pond!! Wet all over!

She is sleeping peacefully
on her platform.

This is the pond where the Pandas
drink water and play around.

She's putting all her weight on me!
Maybe she thought I was her mother!

"You can touch my belly if you want"

Climbing trees together in a bunch

Eating bamboo and drinking water afterwards.
They were also exhausted after running around,
climbing trees and playing with us.
Have a good rest!!

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Vacation @ Chengdu Panda Base-1

The one month Pambassador training is over,
but I am still staying in Chengdu until Dec 10.
Today I went to the Panda Base with
Pambassador Ashley Robertson and her
wonderful friend Melissa from the USA.
The weather was fine, and the baby Pandas were
outside, taking a nap in the morning when we
arrived at the Chengdu Panda Base.
Enjoy some pictures I took!
It's amazing how fast they grow!!

So fluffy!!

Sometimes moving around

And sometimes staring into the camera lense!

Hey!!

And they are so flexible!
Doing her splits.

There were 4 of them outside

The cage is like this.
Plenty of space for the new born babies!

Cute small claws!

I will update my blogs for the final day as pambassador
when I sort the pictures.
I still had them in my SD card, so luckily I didn't lose them!

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

All the pictures are lost...

Hi everyone!

Something terrible happened to me on Saturday night.
My hard disk is broken, and I might have lost all the pictures
that I had taken during my stay in Chengdu...
There is still a possibility that it can be fixed after I go back to
Tokyo, I'll have to see.

I am asking the media to give me some pictures
so that I can upload them to show everyone.

I still have the pictures I took on Oct 5th, the final
day for this Project Panda, and I will update my blog when I have time.

There are still many things I would like to mention about Pandas,
and I was hoping to do things when the project has ended.
Please give me some time to sort things out.

I am staying in Chengdu until Dec 10th, so I will do my best to
show some pictures I will take while I am here.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Day 15 Night tour @ Chengdu Panda Base as Pambassador

Tonight, we were invited on a night tour
at the Chengdu Panda Base to observe
behaviors of Pandas at night.
We did this before
(which I could not update in my blog
because it was too dark and the pictures
were terrible...)
Pambassador Ali Shakorian took great pictures tonight,
so all the pictures on this post is from
Ali.Thanks Ali!!

幸浜 at around 8:30pm.
He was sleeping in his favorite spot when
we arrived.

But then, he recognized our torch light,
and came over. Someone said "Apples" in
Chinese, so I think he came over to get
apples...Sorry 幸浜...

Wow, he came really close!!

He is staring at the camera lense,
leaning on the wall of his outdoor enclosure.

Last time we did the night tour,
幸浜 was eating bamboo when we arrived,
but tonight he was asleep and I think
we interrupted his sleep. He started
eating bamboo near his platform.
Pandas eat a lot at night,
and during our night tour, we saw
other Pandas eating bamboo on their
platform, and this is quite normal.
Some young cubs are being fed with Panda Cakes
at around 7pm. We were able to see
other Pandas too (even the babies!!),
so I will upload
more pictures when they are ready.

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Day 14 @ Chengdu Panda Base as Pambassador

Yesterday, I had the chance to work with
雄浜(Xiong Bang) and　隆浜(Long Bang)at
number 2 enclosure!!
This is 雄浜's enclosure in the morning.
He eats bamboo stems,and therefore
his feces are green and has a nice smell.
I wish I could bring them back to Japan
to show everyone!!!
If you go to Wakayama Adventure World,
you will have the chance to smell panda feces.
Each morning they keep fresh feces
(I'm not sure if this is the right expression...)
in a clear box with holes in it,
so that tourists can smell them.

After collecting all his feces, we weighed them.
12.5kg for today. Not bad!! 雄浜 and 隆浜 hate
Panda Cakes, and the keepers put their favorite
honey on the cakes so that they can eat them,
but clever 雄浜 and 隆浜 always lick the honey
and leaves the Panda Cakes!! Still, they are very
healthy, which is good because taking diet from bamboo is said
to be best for the pandas.

Cleaning 雄浜's enclosure with water.
This is also my favorite keeper, Huang Xing.
His blood type is A, and I knew it from the
first time we met!!

After cleaning the enclosures, we went to give
隆浜 fresh bamboo.

隆浜 waiting for the apples

Look at his cute face!!!

We tried to give him some exersize, but he
is too lazy to stand up!! Every time we tried to
make him stand up, he just gives up and sighs.
Just like human kids!!

So he's really trying hard to get the apple
without standing up

So we gave him apples after a while

Compared to 隆浜、雄浜 is very aggressive,
and he does everything to get his own food

But he turns around for some privacy
when he eats apples

Then shows how happy he is

"hahaha"

In the afternoon, I went to number 14 enclosure
to take care of my pandas, 幸浜 and 秋浜.
This is 秋浜 doing his pretty face saying Hi

I fed him Panda cakes

And patted his head for a while!!!

More to come tomorrow!!

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Day 13 @ Chengdu Panda Base as Pambassador

Hello everyone!
Today, at last the internet problem is solved!
This blog is about the things I did yesterday (Nov 1).

Qiu Bang in the morning.
As I called his name, he jumped off his platform
to say Hi.

"Hi"

"I came closer so that you can see more carefully"

In the afternoon, I went to the 2 year old cub's enclosure.
They are YuanZi, ShangQing, ShuYuan
(the one I did the presentation on at the competition)
and YaLing. They are all 2 year old boys, and are very
close to each other. First we gave them a shower.
They seemed to like the shower, and were laughing all the
time.

" We are clean now!!"

"So, please give us some apples!!"

They love apples and always jump on each other and
punch each other for food...

When we cleaned their outside enclosure and came back,
Yuan Zi, the Panda that loves climbing trees outside was
playing Ninja games... At first I didn't notice him,
and was so surprised when I saw him at the window!!!

"Hahaha, let's play Ninja Games!!"
He looks so proud of himself!

And then we made them all go outside to feed them
apples and their favorite panda cakes.
Nice Chinese Acrobats!!

And these are 3 year old female cubs that live next doors
to the 2 year old cubs enclosure.
Their names are Shu Rong and Xiang Bing.
Shu Rong is the fat girl on the left, she weighs
10kg more than Xiang Bing!

Xiang Bing doing her pretty dance

My favorite keeper at the young cubs enclosure,
Mr. Tang. He takes care of the 4 male cubs (2 year olds)
and 2 female cubs (3 years old). We can recognize him
from far away because of his wonderful loud voice!!

And this 3 year old cub's enclosure is
where 雄浜（Xiong Bang） spent his first few years at
Chengdu Panda Base. Mr. Tang took care of
Xiong Bang for several years.He has told me
that it was hard for Xiong Bang when he came to
Chengdu because he couldn't understand Chinese...
Mr. Tang taught Xiong Bang Sichuan dialect!
And now, Xiong Bang is bilingual!! 

Today 秋浜 (Qiu Bang) was eating bamboo leaves
in his outdoor enclosure.Can you see his
breath is white?? It shows how cold it is
now in Chengdu...

 
Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara

Day off @ Chengdu Panda Base and "Happy Valley"

Hello everyone!! I am back from the mountains, "Long Xi Hong kou National Natural Reserve"!
According to my wonderful experience in the wild, I will
update my blog in the next weekend... I have not sorted out
my pictures yet.
The only thing that I can tell at the moment, is that
we had no shower for 5 days!!!

I missed my Pandas so much, and although today was
a day off, I went to the Panda Base to meet my Pandas.
秋浜(Qiu Bang) sleeping in his outside playground.
This is the view from Xing Bang's （幸浜）enclosure.

If you look really carefully, you can see that 秋浜 is moving
a little by little... He seems to like to stretch out when he sleeps.

And this is today's幸浜(Xing Bang)
Cuddeling up in his platform.

When I arrived at the Panda Base, the two were fast asleep
and they seemed very happy, so I did not want to wake them up.
Tomorrow, we will be back at the Panda Base as usual,
so I will update lots of pictures.

Today in the afternoon, Panda Base staffs and 6 pambassadors
went to "Happy Valley", one of the most interesting amusement parks in
Chengdu. We had a great time together, and I would like to
thank all the staffs at the Panda Base that made this happen.
Unfortunatelly the keepers could not make it there, they
were busy taking care of the Pandas. We will have to think of
some other way so that we could spend some time with our keepers too.

Oh, and one more thing.
A few weeks ago, the 6 pambassadors each had
a volunteering camera crew that had filmed and edited all the videos
about our Pandas and us,
and I would like to share the link tomorrow.
My great camera crew had shooted
some interesting movies of 幸浜(Xing Bang).
He is a great actor, and you will be amazed by his great performance!!

Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara