Posted on 29 September 2010 @ 16:32 in Stress Busters, Travels
I called the keeper yesterday for an update on the two girls. I was surprised to learn that Su Lin is doing better than Zhen Zhen. She is eating her leafeater biscuits from SDZ, and the local bamboo, apples and carrots. Zhen Zhen is still excitable and eating the local bamboo. Both are exploring their new yards and climbing the trees in the yards. The keeper is having a hard time getting them started on the Sichuan dialect, but it’s only their second day here. I asked if I could volunteer to help with being the English translator but she said probably not as the girls are in quarantine, which they take very seriously here.
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Posted on 27 September 2010 @ 08:18 in Stress Busters, Travels
And I was there to see them arrive and move into their quarantine enclosures.
Here are some photos:
Su Lin & Zhen Zhen return to Bifengxia, September 2010
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Posted on 23 September 2010 @ 21:16 in Stress Busters
The photobook I made of Tai Shan’s “moving house” celebrations on 9 March 2010 is now available for purchase at the following web page:
(click on the book cover to go to the purchase page)
Please buy a copy, as proceeds from the book will go to Pandas International’s Wolong Earthquake Fund.
Thanks!
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Posted on 24 August 2010 @ 20:49 in Stress Busters
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.
A mess of scars, including four made by Gong Zhu’s teeth
space
The deepest scar of all
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Posted on 24 August 2010 @ 18:35 in News, Stress Busters
Two new additions to the 2010 batch.
To Yang Yang at Vienna Zoo, a single cub on 23 August, approximately 100g, sex still unknown. Yang Yang has great timing – her first cub, Fu Long, was born exactly 3 years ago on the same date.
To Gong Zhu at Bifengxia Panda Base, a single cub on 24 August, weight and sex unknown.
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