We have been in Bifengxia just over a week now and slowly getting used to standing and watching the pandas in the cold, for Gigi (who is from Hawaii) it has been extremely cold. The second you see the first panda of the day, you forget all about being cold.
Gigi warming up next to the heater in our office
Breeding started really early this year, which unfortunately meant we have missed the first few females in estrus. We are gradually getting up to speed with what behaviours occur when females are in estrus. In both genders their activity increases, for many of the males sent marking involves rolling around in the mud, making them look extremely dirty. It is very entertaining watching how they vary on cleanliness over the days.
Currently at the base we have many famous pandas including Tai Shan from the National Zoo and Lin Bing from Thailand .
Tai Shan enjoying his morning breakfast.
Lin Bing olfactory investigating as she goes into estrus.
Shen Wei and Bo Si are the twins of the female currently at Edinburgh zoo, who are entering their first breeding season. Hands down the favourite panda within the interns has to be Shen Wei, he poses for every photo. Many of the pandas are moving in and out of the breeding area, fingers crossed that Shen Wei doesn’t move anytime soon.
Shen Wei posing with his bamboo.
Another of Shen Wei eating bamboo
-Hope
I posted this communication to my Timeline ! I can’t believe you are there with Tai Shan – and Lin Ping – my adopted daughter Wen Hui is Ling Ping’s younger twin cub! Hope you see lots of cubbies being conceived and thank you for your insights!
JoAnn Haynes Mann
Hello to all, and welcome to the new Interns! To the Interns, I really hope you enjoy your time in China, particularly BFX and Ya’an City! I know it is cold there, but we really appreciate all the hard work you will do for the pandas and PDX Wildlife. I was fortunate to travel to China four times in 2011 and 2012, and volunteered at BFX during those times. I really fell in love with the BFX base and the city of Ya’an – lol, I did not want to come home! I know you are in breeding season now at BFX and I have adopted panda Su Lin (born at San Diego Zoo) since 2011. I know she had been sent to Qingshen Zoo but then went into an early estrus and was returned to BFX. If anyone has any current information or pics on Su Lin, I would love it if you could share them. I know you are extremely busy at this time of year, but I would love to hear anything about my special adopted panda girl!
Thank you, interns, for your interest and dedication to the PDX Wildlife panda program! I know it is “different” from the US but it will always be an experience you will remember!
Thank you also to Meg and Nathan, for this wonderful program you keep going! I always look forward to all the updates! Hope to see you in Atlanta! Sincerely, Jeanette Deines
Jeanette, Su Lin is in New Leopard Mountain! I’ll try to swing by and get some pictures of her before I leave. Zhen Zhen is up in the breeding center and I just got pictures of her I’m hoping to share soon!
Hi Hope, Thanks for the update . I am very curious about which female pandas are joinng the breeding program this year. Do you have any idea?
Best,
Karen
Karen, We have a long list of pandas for breeding this year! Do you have anyone in particular you’re interested in? We can try to get pictures or information depending on what the CCRCGP allows us to share. We’ll try our best!