Giant pandas
on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 01/Mar/2012 09:15, 34 days ago
The opinions expressed are the author's own and do not reflect these of VSO29/2/2012.Chengdu; Visit to Giant Panda Research Base.This was one of our reasons for visiting Chengdu.We were not disappointed. As advised 30We left our hotel soon after 7.30 this morning for the 50 minute taxi drive to the Panda Base. Getting there early is important because feeding time is at 9.30 every morning and soon after that the pandas do their other favourite thing--sleep.    We had time to walk around the panda nursery, and kindergarten before feeding time.These were really amazing places. There were numerous little cubs to be admired in very natural surrundings, some were sitting up in trees, while others played about on the ground, looking just like cuddly toys.Everything was as near to the bears' natural surroundings as possible, even the breakfast portions of bamboo shoots were stuck into the ground so that they seemed to be growing there. It was like spying on the teddy bears picnic,I felt like singing'if you go down in the woods today----, but the bears wouldn't like it! They don't like noise and there were notices asking people to be quiet.Pandas are endangered in the wild. The destruction of forests in the north-west mountains of China, fragmenting their habitat is one reason. They have survived on earth 8 million years, while we were told most species die out in less than 5 million. Most panda cubs tend to be born pre-mature which decreases the rate of survival, also their diet of bamboo is low in energy giving nutrients.The centre has been working to overcome those problems since it began about 20 years ago. To date more than 90 cubs have been successfully raised there. I found the pandas and all the available information fascinating.Who are you?The centre is also home to the red panda.I never heard of them before. They are much smaller than the giant panda, in fact a little bigger than a fox, darker in colour and with similar long bushy tails. They seemed quite curious little creatures,and came and stood up on hind legs to get a better view of us. They too survive on a diet of bamboo.Red panda.All in all it was a most enjoyable day, the hours flew by.It has to be one of the highlights of this trip.