The base has recently been booming with newborns; newborn twins that is! There are currently 12 babies at Bifengxia! Recently, Ge Ge gave birth to twins on Sunday night 08/09/2015, Jing Xin who gave birth to twins on Friday night 08/14/2015, and the famous San Diego panda Zhen Zhen gave birth to twins on Friday night 08/08/2015 as well.
Ying Hua’s cub is growing so fast!
Ying hua and Xi xi’s babies are doing very well. They are growing like weeds and are coming up on their 2 month birthday on the 19th (Ying Hua) and 30th (Xi Xi) of August. Ying Hua and Xi Xi both gave birth to adorable baby girls. I have recently been collecting maternal care data on each of these mothers and it is very interesting to watch them and see how they differ in maternal care. Just like us, each mother has her own style of taking care of their babies and they are doing a great job! Luckily for them, they have had practice before these two cubs were born. Xi Xi and Ying Hua are experienced panda cub raisers since they have both given birth and raised a quite a few cubs in previous years.
Luckily, my last two weeks here I was able to really watch the mothers and cubs and learn a little bit about panda maternal care. Unfortunately, my time here at Bifengxia has come to a close. This was an unforgettable experience being in China and working with all the pandas and wonderful employees of the Bifengxia panda base. The transition to a new country was not easy being a newcomer to China and it being my first time traveling alone, but everyone made me feel welcome and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Getting to know each and every panda was especially great because they really do grow on you. I couldn’t begin to pick a favorite because they are all fantastic in their own ways.
The three months I have spent here have gone by in a blink of an eye. I will never get used to not being able to wake up in the morning and go see dozens of pandas staring me right in the face when I get home, but I am pretty sure I will make my way back to China soon. Thank you to Meg and Nate for giving me this amazing opportunity and thank you to the staff of the CCRCGP for welcoming me with open arms!
Thank You Miranda. We look forward to working with you in the future!
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- Hard at work with the behavior collecting app.
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- Zhen Zhen, the attentive mother
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- Miranda should be easy to spot (middle)
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- Miranda
