Among Pandas: A Family Affair
There were three reasons I went to Wolong recently.
The first was to see my adopted panda cub, Yoong Ping. That I did. And touched her and tried to get her to stay still for some pictures.
The second was to participate in the volunteer programme at Wolong. That I did. Where I got to scoop panda poop, among other tasks. Panda poop, due to the high content of bamboo in the diet, is solid and hard. Unless the panda had less than the usual amount of bamboo, in which case the poop is more … er, mushy.
The third was to try and see Hua Mei, the first panda cub who ignited my love for giant pandas when I first saw her at age 6 months back in the year 2000. Under the San Diego Zoo’s panda loan agreement with China – which states that all panda cubs born to adult pandas on loan from China belong to the mother country and must return after they turn 2 – Hua Mei had returned to Wolong in 2003, about 2 years late due to the SARS epidemic a year earlier. I wasn’t sure if I’d get to see her this trip as she’d recently given birth. But I not only got to see her, but also her newborns, too.
So I fulfilled all my three reasons for visiting Wolong, and more.
I’d heard that Hua Mei’s father, Shi Shi, who had been returned to Wolong in 2002, was now in Guangzhou Zoo. I’d seen him during my San Diego Zoo trip in 2001, and wanted to see him again, especially as there were recent rumours that he’d died. Well, he’s still alive, altho completely blind. But in the care of keepers who I could tell, from chatting with them, love him very much.
I was told Panyu Safari World near Guangzhou Zoo has a panda exhibit. One of the pandas there was called Dong Dong and had originally been from Wolong. NekoMama7 wondered if this is the same Dong Dong who is Hua Mei’s maternal grandmother. Since I would be in Guangzhou, I made plans to go to the Safari World. There, I confirmed with one of the interpreters that their Dong Dong is a grandmother whose granddaughter Hua Mei is in Wolong.
In Wolong itself, I discovered more family connections for Hua Mei and also among the other pandas. Ling Ling, one of the pandas I helped care for during my volunteer time there, had fathered her first set of twins back in 2004.
Increasingly, I find panda family connections important and interesting. Wolong had a stud panda papa by the name of Pan Pan who fathered many of the younger pandas in Wolong, including Bai Yun, Hua Mei’s mother, now in San Diego Zoo and Tian Tian, Tai Shan’s father, now at the National Zoo. At Panyu Safari World’s panda exhibit, the three younger pandas include 2 fathered by Pan Pan. Even my panda daughter, Yoong Ping, may have been fathered by Pan Pan; when I asked Dr Wang, he said the father was either Pan Pan or Da Di. Pan Pan is now retired to Bifenxia, a Wolong affiliated reserve.
With so many pandas fathered by the same papa, at some point, there would be a danger of in-breeding. This is why Hua Mei’s return was important to Wolong; her father, Shi Shi, was a wild panda wounded in a fight and rescued in the early 1990s. Her other siblings – Mei Sheng, Su Lin and the newborn – will also be important to Wolong’s breeding efforts, thanks to the wild genes provided by Daddy Gao Gao.
From a mere delight in the cuteness of giant pandas, my interest in them has grown over the years to include what some might call panda genealogy. Whatever the name, this will be one area I hope to track from now on.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Zoo is getting Mei Sheng ready for his return to Wolong next month.
