During October Dr Wendy Foster, Rebecca Ma and I traveled to China to meet with Chinese partners working on the Giant Panda program and of course, some pandas!

This trip was an opportunity to further strengthen the zoo's relationship with our Chinese counterparts as well as for me to learn more about an important conservation program for Zoos SA, not only because we host Wang Wang and Funi at Adelaide Zoo but because China's Sichuan Province is one of our focuses for international conservation support.

The China Panda Conservation Challenge is a 12 day journey that allows participants to travel to China, enjoy amazing experiences and fundraise for Zoos SA's conservation efforts. One of the highlights of the trip is a visit to the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre in Chengdu; somewhere I have been lucky enough to experience for myself.

Visiting the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre is one of the trip's highlights!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to write briefly about two wonderful pandas that I was able to see while at the panda base.

The first is about a wild caught female that has been at the centre for number of years. She was found in the wild with what is thought to be an injury that occurred from an illegal snare trap placed out in the forest. When she was bought into the panda base, her front left paw was so badly injured that it had to be amputated. The good news is that she was able to make a full recovery and a couple of years ago she even gave birth to twins, adding more genetic diversity to the captive population.

Hi everyone!

Well, we have been very lucky over here! Luo Bo has been very hospitable with us indeed... Jason, myself and Cooper (from Washington Zoo) were able to go in with 6 two year old cubs! Incredible.

Hi everyone

Have been having a wonderful time here in China and being able to see so many beneficial things that will help us in the future.

We have met up with Luo Bo again, one of the staff members that came over to Adelaide with Wang Wang and Fu Ni. It has been so nice to catch up with him, he even remembers some of the Aussie slang we taught him....when we thank him for anything he always replies with a big smile on his face and says "no worries mate".

Hi all, 

Well, to say that we have been lucky is an understatement here at the panda base. We have been so lucky!!!! Yesterday was our first day back at the base since I left with Wang Wang and Fu Ni by my side. It was strange to come back as all the excitement and anticipation of the past events came rushing back! Now 18 months on from my first meeting of Wang Wang and Fu Ni I am back, a lot wiser but still with so much to learn.

Hello from China!

Well, myself and Jason finally made it to Ya'an today after a busy 3 days of travel! We left on Monday, first stop Hong Kong for one very full day! We actually arrived at 10:00 at night on Monday, had a good sleep and then Tuesday morning got up early and headed to Ocean Park! Our mission...to meet the Panda Keepers there, ask a million questions, make good contacts and basically learn as much as we could about their panda programme!

MEDIA RELEASE

Adelaide Zoo senior keepers left for China on April 4 to learn more about the Panda mating process, as the only Giant Pandas in the Southern Hemisphere, Wang Wang and Funi, near their first potential breeding season.

Senior Panda Keeper Simone Davey, and Assistant Curator Jason Hakof, will spend two weeks at the Bifengxia Panda Base near Ya'an, learning ways to maximise the chances of successful panda matings.

Within Wolong there is a sculpture showing the efforts made by people to rescue pandas. The sculpture was in the park prior to the earthquake, but the same sentiment and dedication was seen after the earthquake. 

It is humbling to come and visit the facilities in China and to get an appreciation of the efforts people are putting into saving this iconic species – and with it some of the world's amazing biological diversity in Sichuan – a biodiversity hotspot.

After the excitement of meeting the new panda cubs it was time to celebrate the success of the international breeding program – 14 pandas on loan overseas and 13 young born (9 surviving).

Six young pandas born overseas have recently been returned to Bifengxia forming the largest group of overseas returned pandas. To accommodate these additions to the panda base, the Leopard Mountain section of the base has been rebuilt to now be capable of holding 10 sub adult pandas in 3 villas and 7 enclosures.

Two pandas from San Diego, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen, are the most recent additions to the population having returned to China on the 26th September and having now completed their quarantine period they were moved to join the other four overseas born pandas as part of the ceremony. They join Hua Mei and Mei Sheng, also from San Diego, Tai Shan from National Zoo in the US and Fu Long from Vienna.

At the end of the ceremony, guests were invited get changed into overalls to volunteer to care for the pandas – hand feeding them bamboo shoots, panda cake, carrots and apples. There were a lot of smiles at the opportunity to get close to a panda and for the officials from the embassy it certainly made a change to their normal routine – not a bad first time encounter with pandas for the Australian embassy reps!

Wendy
Manager of Conservation Programs, Zoos SA

Photo 1: Marty (AusAID) hand feeding Su Lin on release from Quarantine.
Photo 2: Marty (AusAID) and Emma (DFAT) from the Beijing office of the Australian embassy with two overseas born pandas

Hi everyone,

Well I am having an amazing time over here working at the Schonbrunn Tiergarten (Vienna Zoo)! I have had two days so far and enjoying it a lot. It has snowed for both those days which makes everything so beautiful. It is not hard to make anything beautiful over here as it is the oldest zoo in the world, founded in 1752. The buildings are beautiful! It also has a nice mix of old and new now a days.

The pandas are lovely too! Long Hui, the male is a gorgeous relaxed male...takes everything in his stride. Yang Yang the female is really sweet as well and they both have their own quirks just like Wang Wang and Fu Ni! Panda are such wonderful animals as they are all so different.

Heading out of Yingxui gave us a much better understanding of the challenges faced in the region as we travelled along one of the large challenges – the road to Wolong.

In order to be able to rebuild an area you need to be able to get people, equipment and supplies in and out of the area. And here that means by road – or at least an approximation of a road. When you don't have a functional road that makes life extremely difficult.

Hi everyone,

Very exciting times ahead for us on the panda round!

For a while now we have been looking into getting a training cage made up to assist us with all our medical procedures with Wang Wang and Fu Ni. Staff have viewed these types of cages previously at other institutions that house Giant Pandas and they seem to work really well (see photo of a Keeper at Ocean Park, Hong Kong, using their training cage with one of their pandas).

At the end of the conference, the conference attendees were invited to be part of the birthday celebrations for a Giant Panda, Basi, who was living at Fuzhou Panda World. Basi was turning 30, which is very old for a Giant Panda – they generally have a lifespan of about 25 years in captivity.

In 1983 there was a large bamboo die-off that occurred in several regions of the Qionglai Mountains.

Hi everyone,

Well today was an adventure! We performed the general anaesthetic on both Wang Wang and Funi today, to make sure they were both in good health before their journey. Both procedures went very well and they are both in excellent condition.

Wang Wang's procedure was first and we were inundated by media - I have never seen so much interest! It was amazing, there were cameras, sound people and reporters everywhere! It was very different to Australian media and really showed just how much interest there is for pandas in China!

Yesterday was great. Went into Ya' an. There is a beautiful bridge there that has this amazing building on it....now shops, mainly tea shops. It is so cool to be the minority over here! Everyone was staring at us...but all very friendly. I am loving the culture over here.

Today was amazing! As if I thought I couldn't top my trip....well I did. I have been going in earlier then the others every morning to be there for the morning cleaning procedures. Shane (camera man) has come up as well a couple of times to get some extra shots. Well, we were lucky that he came up today because when Luo Bo picked us up he told me that he had gone in with Funi yesterday and that she had behaved really well. Then he surprised me by saying that he was going to take me in with her as he was happy with the progress we had been making. I could not believe it!

Hi again,
What a great few days I have had! Yesterday I was able to do my first training with Wang Wang and Funi. It was really good...though Wang Wang seemed to be wondering why I was trying to train him!

There was a really big celebration here as well, in order to welcome a 2 1/2 year old male panda called Fulong. He arrived from Zoo Vienna in Austria, where he was born as part of the captive breeding programme.

Well, another day today in China...working with pandas...tough life!

Today I was shown how to make Panda cake, which they all seem to love. It is quite a complicated process. Luckily Jason has time to set this all up before our arrival back in just 9 days - we need to buy a steamer and a grinding machine! Lou Bo is an excellent cake maker so he will teach us when he is in Adelaide.

Just a quick email to say hi. Am having a great time over here, it could not be more beautiful. It's been snowing the past 2 days. Pandas in the snow - can you imagine?!

I have spent my first full day working with Wang Wang and Funi, alongside Lou Bo, the Chinese keeper who will be moving to Australia for a few months. He is lovely and I know we will get along very well.

Both the pandas are just gorgeous! Very different personalities. Funi seems very naughty, she is only 3 and is still climbing trees a lot and exploring all the time. She is going to love all the attention.

Hi guys,

Well, what an amazing two days it has been. Yesterday was very cold with sleet/rain. Not the most enjoyable weather to get stuck into anything!

I was so surprised when I arrived at the centre after a beautiful, yet sometimes nerve racking, trip up the mountain. The road up is almost 2 lanes wide... for 2 small cars but we were on the staff bus! It is a very windy road and in order to prevent any accidents they beep the horn everytime they go around a corner! What an experience! The view of the mountains are amazing....though yesterday, due to the weather, it was hard to see anything.