The most amazing rescue story ever
This is probably the most amazing rescue story to come out of the 2008 earthquake that devastated China’s Sichuan province. Amazing because it’s not about a human rescuing an animal, and because it didn’t take place after the earthquake, but before.
I was chatting and swapping giant panda care stories with Zhang Xin, the keeper from Bifengxia who is helping to care for Feng Yi and Mei Xin in Guilin. When I mentioned I had helped care for Gong Zhu during my 2008 volunteer trip, he perked up and said he had a personal story about her.
On 15 April 2008, Zhang was extracting milk from Gong Zhu. That year, Wolong had chosen Gong Zhu for an experiment; while all the other cubs from the 2007 batch had been weaned from their mothers, her twins were staying with her for 18 months, the same length of time cubs in the wild would stay with their mothers.
Something caught Gong Zhu’s eye and startled her. She reacted by clamping her mouth on Zhang’s right leg. The bites required more than 10 stitches each and he had to be hospitalised.
He was still in hospital when the earthquake happened on 12 May. Without hesitation, he packed and left the hospital, even tho he had not fully recovered, and was in fact still limping. He headed straight for the Wolong Panda Centre. At the entrance, he got to work, helping to cover dead bodies and moving them to one side, as well as helping the injured.
It was only later that some of his colleagues told him if he weren’t in hospital, he might’ve died. At the time he was hospitalised, he was helping to care for Mao Mao, who later perished in the earthquake. On the day of the earthquake, if Zhang hadn’t been in hospital, he might’ve been working in the building at the time of the earthquake. So he thinks Gong Zhu might’ve rescued him from that building and saved his life. And like most animal lovers who believe animals have a sixth sense about environment related disasters, he believes Gong Zhu might’ve had a sixth sense about the earthquake that didn’t happen until almost a month later.
Zhang still has the scars on his leg, and laughed when I told him they are Gong Zhu’s love bites on him.
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A mess of scars, including four made by Gong Zhu’s teeth
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The deepest scar of all
