Ok, ok, I know I am VERY behind with my blogging and I want to do all my blogs in order of the dates they happened, so while this is my second blog (which means it should be the second day of my travels, which is when I was still in Cusco, Peru back in Dec. 2013), I just couldn't wait to write a QUICK little update about my first day experience with the panda bears in Xi'an, China, which was today (btw, "Xi'an" is pronounced "she-ahn"), Feb. 18, 2014. I don't have any pics as we are not allowed to take pics of the pandas while we are working with them, but we're hoping they will give us an opportunity to take pics another day. The government funds the property we are on and takes care of all the wild animals that are here, and takes special care to protect the pandas so they don't want pictures shared online, which is why it will make it difficult to get pictures, but I'm sure I'll get a chance one of these days during the 2 weeks I am here.
The pandas ARE amazing! I was supposed to arrive around midnight on Sat. night in Xi'an, but after sitting on the plane for 1.5 hours, they told us to debark and that we would have to stay at the airport hotel for the night as the weather in Xi'an was not good and the flight had to be cancelled. The fiasco of figuring out who to talk to, where to go, how to get a shuttle and how to get to the hotel was quite daunting but I finally figured it out. Then less than 4 hours later the hotel lobby called to tell me I needed to come downstairs to grab a shuttle back to the airport for my morning flight. Luckily, when I landed, someone was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it, although he didn't speak a word of English and had to pass me his phone to have someone on the phone explain that they were bringing me to the i-to-i hostel in Xi'an for lunch and later in the day they would move me to the panda bear hostel about 2 hours away.
So fast forward to today…. My first official day working with the pandas. It was so awesome!!! I got to clean the cages out for 4 of the pandas while each of them sat in the cage next to me and watched. They all have a door at the back of their cages that leads to the outside yard in the back where they can hang out if they want to, and currently it's full of snow, which they love (and that's why my flight was canceled, due to a heavy snow storm, so lots of fresh fluffy snow on the ground).
The cages are filled with tons of bamboo each day and the pandas eat the bamboo all day long, with the exception of getting "treats twice a day" (4 carrots, 2 apples and 2 big "panda cakes" which are mini loafs of bread that are baked fresh for the pandas every day and they get them nice and hot out of the oven and LOVE them). Other than eating and going to the bathroom, they also like to sleep a lot, but they mock us humans, as they like to sleep when it is night time, with a few little power naps during the day, usually after a long hard work out of eating bamboo all day long.
The first cage we cleaned had a panda who is named "grandma" in Chinese. I cannot remember how to pronounce her name exactly. She is quite large and literally is a grandma and that's what they call her. She is 20 years old which is quite old for a panda. In the wild they tend to live till they are 15 y/o but in captivity they can live up to 40 y/o. Grandma sat quietly in the cage next to me and watched as we pulled all the day old bamboo branches which she'd eaten up already, out of her cage. Then we took a broom and shovel and cleaned up all her poop. And then we rinsed out the floor and swept out the water. And then we dragged in a lot of fresh bamboo branches in the cage. Sam is the only other volunteer that is here with me right now (since it's such a cold time of year and normally the volunteers don't start coming here till March or later). She is from the UK and she got here a week before me. We are now sharing a room as it's freezing in the house (a literal icebox with no insulation), but the good news is we were able to combine both of our heaters from our two separate rooms to make our one room we are now sharing nice and toasty. And tonight we even snuck the tv and dvd player in from the living room into our room as the only other person sharing the hostel with us is Leo who is here to basically babysit us and make sure we're happy. None of us would watch it in the living room as there's no way to heat that huge room and even with 4 layers of clothing there's no way to get comfortable out there but now we are in our room and nice and toasty and watching a movie in our room.
SPECIAL SIDE NOTE ABOUT PANDAS:
All the panda's cages are cleaned in order and they are all in separate rooms, so they then have their own separate space to go out to their backyard when they want to. Pandas are actually anti-social and they don't like to hang out with each other, they prefer to be alone. In the wild, they normally fight each other if they meet. Only when the female is ready to mate, she will then mark her territory with an invitation for the strongest male panda to come find her and mate with her. And in the wild the when a female gives birth she usually has twins, however she doesn't have the energy to care for 2 pandas so she will pick the stronger of the two to care for and will abandon the other one to die. So sad! Also, some females do not have good instincts to be a mother, so sometimes they will attack their own baby and not recognize that it is their baby they should care for. When the baby is born it is pink, it has no hair and it looks like a little rat that fits in the palm of a human's hand. Its eyes are closed and they don't open till they are 45 days old. They don't start walking until they are 3 mos. old and they get their full fur, finally, by the time they are 4 mos. old. When they are babies, up until they are 2 years old, they will play with each other. Once they get to be 2 years old, the mother will abandon the baby to go survive on its own (of course, up until then she has taught it how to find its own food and eat on its own.
Back to today:
The second cage I went to was Tjing Chyuan. I love him!!! I have decided that we have a very special relationship now, and his keeper, who is a lovely young lady named Chell, also thinks so. Tjing Chyuan LOVES to talk and yell and bark (oh yeah, pandas can bark like dogs, only much louder). When he knows it's time to clean his cage and bring him fresh bamboo, he will start yelling and barking and standing up and climbing the bars of his cage. We clean the cages in order from left to right. We are in charge of 4 of them. There is another area of the property that has many more but we do not clean after them, other keepers on the property do. When we entered Tjing Chyuan's cage today he was already yelling as he had heard us nearby in Grandma's cage. He is not only loud but also very active and smart. He does reach out with his paws as you pass him so he can easily swipe you if you don't keep your distance and pay attention to what he's doing. His keeper, Chell, today me to be very careful and cautious with him. (Side note: Pandas actually are not mean animals and they do love humans. They actually just want to play with us but don't know their own strength and have no idea they can hurt us). So we started cleaning out the old bamboo and he proceeded to yell and yell and bark and bark. So I decided to try to start talking to him in a nice and comforting friendly sweet voice, but that did not avert him. Then I decided I would try to sing. So I started singing, "Raindrops on Roses" and "Doe a Deer" from "The Sound of Music." When I lowered my voice and kept it at the same quitter tone and continued to sing, wouldn't you know it, Tjing Chyuan responded and stopped yelling and barking. He completely calmed down and stopped climbing his cage too. Apparently, he loves to get attention and when I started singing to him and kept singing to him, he really liked that and considered that something that he wanted. They said that he used to live somewhere else where he lived with a different female keeper who he had a special bond with and when they moved him to this property he would cry all the time, so they felt he was missing her. I was so happy that on my very first day with him I was able to calm him down. Chell told me that normally the only thing that will shut him up is when you give him food. But now we know, so will singing…. or at the very least, MY singing! So sweet!!! Truly another PRICELESS moment! She said that when I leave he will likely miss me as well. And I said, well, you will just have to teach all your volunteers to sing to him in a calming voice. I hope that every day I spend with him will be like it was today. It felt so nice to personally connect to such an amazing and rare animal.
The third and fourth cages we cleaned were without incident. The pandas just sit quietly, or walk around their side cages, while watching us clean up and bring in the new fresh bamboo.
Wish I had pictures to share, but as I said the government doesn't approve of that, so we'll see if I get so lucky to get some in the future.
Hope you enjoyed my story for the day!!!!
