On a cold and rainy October day, we visited the Panda Sanctuary in Chengdu. Fat Pandas snoozing in trees make me happy. The big, cuddly guys find a fork in the tree, wedge themselves in, flop over and doze off. It takes a lot of energy to digest nine hours of bamboo eating.
If you don’t know what to look for, you could miss these guys!
There’s a reason panda’s popularity is so unwavering. They are objectively adorable and there’s nothing scary. They maneuver bamboo with big paws, roll around and snooze in trees. What’s not to love?
Eating Pandas
The Panda Sanctuary has birthing facilities for both the red and giant pandas as well as veterinarian centers and research buildings. For the many bamboo-lined miles of walking, there are tea houses and bus lines to help make a day of the visit. For our October visit, there were very few Western visitors but crowds of Chinese tourists. We were told that the pandas are more active in the colder weather and that it keeps most tourists away so we were glad for the cool day.
Red Pandas too! There are still some of these guys in the wilds of China, Nepal and India.
Chengdu, though the Panda Sanctuary, is home to the movement to reintroduce them into the wild. “Panda” is the city’s logo and you can feel the pride of ownership to this movement. The current guess is that there are ten or less pandas living in the wild, so you cannot simply release pandas born in captivity into the wild to reintegrate with the others. They need to find enough food, water and open space to find a mate and raise their young. How can they learn these things if not from other pandas? Do they have predators? (Besides humans?)
We saw a film about the protected wilderness just outside the city limits where researchers are trying to reintroduce them. There are actually humans dressed in panda suits (think high school mascot suit) who are acting out what pandas should do and where to go. It’s, at first, funny to watch, then it starts to feel pathetic – a kind of groveling to the wildness we once knew. Maybe it’s more like complete dedication? I just hope it works because it’s sad to think that these gentle creatures won’t survive without such extreme intervention. And what happens to the mascot people in mating season?
Baby Pandas in the nursery
The Paradise Family happily stood in the drizzle to watch them snooze peacefully. We all giggled in wonder. Even Will. And that’s saying something. The kids walked away asking, “What can we do?” “How can we help?” (The best kind of road schooling!) And I guess the answer is the same as it is for most environmental issues: reduce, reuse, recycle and don’t eat meat. Meat consumption, and the need for grazing lands, is the leading cause of wildlife habitat destruction. Through our time at the Panda Sanctuary and their educational kiosks, our kids really saw the connection of it all. Kids will grow into adults who will protect what they love. And we definitely love the pandas.
