Lauran living the panda keeper dream!

Lauran Hunter shifting Yao Man from the indoor enclosure to outside.

I don’t know how closely everyone read Lauran’s welcome blog, but it’s been her life long dream to work on pandas and she’s been training to become a keeper with the BMZA program in Portland, OR at the PCC Rock Creek campus.  Working as a PDXWildlife intern she’s now realized that dream! Here’s what she has to say about it:

“This week I got to focus on working as a panda keeper! It’s a dream come true to work this close with my favorite animal!

Lauran cleaning one of the panda enclosures.

It was really exciting to get to work with panda keepers in China. There aren’t a lot of differences working as a keeper in the US versus here in Ya’an; mostly just the types of tools used and the cleaning process itself.

For example, the keepers here don’t use hoses to clean enclosures, they use buckets of water that they pour on the floor and use brooms to scrub and sweep. In the States there is a lot of disinfection and deep cleanings that happen at least once weekly. Here in China, disinfection occur less often (at least at the breeding center).

All keepers have their assigned panda enclosures to clean, but will always offer to help out a co-worker. We leave bamboo in the outdoor enclosure after cleaning which the keepers break (by whacking it on the ground). It’s actually harder than it looks!

I’m very glad to be getting the experience and to be working under the guidance of some wonderful keepers!”

-Lauran