While most of the research we conduct here at Bifengxia is on pandas, once in a while the competitive nature of human beings comes into focus, especially among roommates.
Stronger as a group
I’m excited to see our four PDXWildlife interns getting along so well. They have quickly learned all of the behaviors for our Male-Male study and have mastered the often difficult process of mingling with the panda keepers and managers. It speaks volumes when they are able to rattle off the names of all the bears at the breeding center and to correct me on mispronunciations.
Aside from all of the fascinating pandas and their curious mating season behaviors, one aspect of PDXWildlife that we don’t often speak about is the group dynamics that come out of living and working together for 3 months. As you can see from the pictures below, there is often a considerable amount of free time that allows us to re-enact scenes from “Lord of the Flies”. My money was on Alyssa, as she showed the most promising Kung Fu abilities. Nicole had a height advantage, but it left her vulnerable, and Jenn was simply too nice to really take a swipe at the others.
Taking out some aggression
Kung Fu Master- Alyssa
Limbo time
Watch out y’all
After I was done capturing the wild nature of human beings, I once again turned my attention back to the pandas. I managed to capture most of the breeding center bears during mealtime. The female hormone levels remaining fairly low, the rest of the day was spent enjoying the beautiful day around Bifengxia. Enjoy the pics!
Su Lin
An An
Lu Lu
Cao Cao
Ying Hua
Su Shan
Xiang Ge
