Chengdu

Chengdu Panda Center

We arrive at the volunteering guest house. They take us to the outskirts of Chengdu to a panda center. Once there, they let us walk around to watch the pandas. The panda cubs are born in the summer. Pandas can weigh from six grams to 146 grams. If a mother panda gives birth to twins, she will only choose the healthiest twin, and she will let the other twin die. When I heard about this, I felt very disappointed. This the only aspect of a panda’s life that I do not like. Thankfully, this panda center takes the other twin and raises it in the panda breeding center!

Three weeks after the panda is born, it will begin to grow fur that has the same patches as its mother. After six to eight weeks, the cub will begin to open its eyes, and its teeth will begin to grow. Soon, the cub will slowly begin to walk. When I saw pictures of this phase of the panda’s life, I instantly was filled with a desire to pick up the panda and hug it! They didn’t know how to walk, so they would just lie on the ground eating!

After half a year, the cubs are still dependent on their mothers, but they are learning how to find food and water as well as how to climb trees.

Pandas like twenty-seven different types of bamboo. They consume twenty-five percent of their body weight. They eat from twenty to forty pounds of bamboo per day! They spend ten to sixteen hours of their days just eating! So basically, pandas eat to have the energy to digest their food, and eat again. This center began with only six pandas, and now they take care of 146 pandas. They are beginning to release some pandas back into the wild.

My Personal Experience With the Pandas

Pandas are like little children dressed up. They sit, eat, walk, and sleep like children.

We are volunteering with the pandas for one week. When we arrive at the center, we are told that we will be working in the breeding center, where the pregnant pandas stay. First, we are divided into three groups, two people in each. I am with my dad. Then, we are assigned to a master, a person that takes care of the pandas by feeding, cleaning, and observing them. Our master teaches us how to act around a panda, how to feed it, and how to clean its room and yard. Now it is our turn!

First, we lock the panda in its yard. Then, we go into its room, and with our hands, we pick up all the long bamboo and put it into a pile outside. Then, with a broom, we clean up the shorter bamboo pieces and bamboo shoots and put them in the pile with the larger bamboo. Next, we clean up the panda's poop and put it in a bin because it will be given to the farmers so they can use it for compost in their farms. Then, we throw water on the floor and walls and clean them. Finally, we put more bamboo into the panda’s room, but before we do that, we had to hit the bamboo against the floor to crack the tip so the panda can eat it easier. Then, we let the panda in and go clean outside.

Cleaning outside is more difficult than cleaning inside. First of all, the panda poop is hidden in the grass and plants. So, we have to go hunting under plants and rocks! Then, the pandas eats more bamboo when it is outside. It chews up the bamboo and leaves the leftovers blended in with the grass. Normally, when my dad and I clean outside, we break up the tasks; I find the bamboo, and my dad cleans the poop. The next day we switch. Also, as we are cleaning, the panda watches us through the little window to make sure we are doing a good job cleaning his backyard! It is kind of intimidating! One time, we were cleaning a panda’s backyard, and she sat right at the window and watched us the entire time. When I began to clean up her poop, she began to pace back and forth!

After cleaning up the pandas’ rooms and backyards, it is time to make their food and then feed them. The pandas eat panda cake which is made from rice powder, soy powder, and corn powder mixed with water. They also eat carrots, bamboo, and bamboo shoots. We learned how to make the panda cake, and then we fed it to them. After giving the pandas the cake, I tried some of it. It tastes a little bit grainy! After feeding time we let them sleep and play and then fed them again later. As they slept and played, I would sit outside their cage watching them. They act exactly like little children, playful and clumsy, but they love to sleep and eat! After their second feeding time, we would go back to the volunteering center looking forward to the next day.

On our last day with the pandas, I made sure all their rooms and backyards were very clean, and I gave them some extra panda cake since they love it! I wished I could have hugged them goodbye, but I did say it! Even though all we did there was clean up poop and feed them, I felt honored to be able to help the symbol of China! This was an experience I will never forget!