Panda Brawl!

Roly-poly pandas - it has been a really long time since I have seen something so overwhelmingly cute. I know that pandas aren't really helping with their own survival (don't really like to reproduce, when they give birth they don't know what to do and often kill the baby, only will eat 20 kinds of bamboo out of China's 300 varieties, etc.) but you can't help just being completely enamored with the big black and white evolutionary challenged buffoons when you see them in person.

Matt and I went to the panda research center in Chengdu and were really impressed with the nice facility they had there for the animals - as Chinese zoos are utterly depressing. They had really nice and spacious habitats with lots of places for them to play, climb and hide (if they wanted to). All along the paths there are signs with information about the pandas as well as warnings not to feed/taunt the bears or to make loud noises. Also, the caretakers seemed to really care about the animals which was a nice change from the staff at other zoos that I have been to in Asia.

So, our tour group was walking along one of the paths and came across a panda munching on a huge mound of bamboo - cameras whipped out to capture one of the two things that pandas like to do - eating. We watched it tear into the bamboo for a little bit and laughed at the other one in the same habitat - the other panda was sleeping, face down. No, really face down. It looked like that it tripped, landed on its face and just decided to stay like that for a little nap. Okay, so onward down the path to see some more of these charismatic animals!

Because we went in the morning around feeding time, they were a little more active than usual when they are doing their other favorite activity - sleeping. We all gathered around the panda nursery and instantly became smitten with a little 5 month old baby trying to sit up - after quite a struggle, the little one flopped over front ways and put its head down because that particular activity took a lot of energy! After it rested for a little bit, it tried to get back into its enclosure (from the viewing area) by sticking its head through the bars and trying to wiggle through. Part way through he decided that wasn't a good idea and backed out, flipped on its back and then again struggled to sit up. Ahhh the difficulties of being mostly fur and fat!

Then onto panda kindergarten! More feasting going on - two pandas were having a little picnic. Then, the most active captive animals I have ever seen - one panda climbed a tree while one, then two pandas tried to pull it down - very amusing. Then some chasing around and then one of the most hilarious panda moments - panda brawl! Leeeet's get ready to rumble! Two pandas started to play/fight with each other. I don't even know how to describe it - they were biting faces, pushing, one pushed the other into a somersault roll. Right after the somersault, the instigator started to push and roll (with his head) the other panda down to the edge of the enclosure where there is a hill and ends with the trench. Then, at the climax of the struggle, the panda slides down the side of the hill and lands in the trench while his chubby friend runs back to the tree.

Oh my god! Sooo hilarious! I was able to shoot a video clip during the brawl, but can't post it, so if you would like to see it, please let me know and I will try to email it! Or, if any of you techies out there know how I can post it, let me know!

After spend some quality time at the kindergarten, we went of to look at some more feasting pandas (in the background we could still see them fighting) and watch the playful red pandas. The red pandas were very active, chasing each other around the enclosure and eating guess what? Yup. Bamboo.

The tour ended at the gift shop (like so many Chinese tours do) where they also were playing a video about the center and the animals there. It was very interesting - they had some footage of pandas giving birth. Really quite strange. The mother doesn't always know what is happening and then, all of a sudden a little reddish-pinkish thing squirts out of her onto the ground. It is squirming and screaming. The new mother doesn't know what that thing is that just squirted out of her and is a little afraid of it and walks away. She later comes back and starts to sniff it and bat it around the birthing cage. Sometimes if they give birth to twins, they don't know what to do with two, so they kill one of them. The keeper runs in while the mother is on the other side of the cage and quickly picks up the shrieking baby. Hmmm...endangered because of why?

Oh, there was also a little museum on the grounds, it wasn't very good or interesting, but we did manage to get great joy out of an especially bad diorama depicting a pre-historic scene with a hominid family, elephants, tigers, leopards, sabertooth tiger, tusked pig (I think) all interacting with each other. Off to the side, eating, was a pair of pandas completely uninvolved with the rest of the scene. Also, we got a kick out of a very scientifically developed pie chart of the panda's daily life schedule in the wild. About half was devoted to sleeping, the other to eating then a little red sliver was devoted to "play time". Ahhh...good times!

After, we got to thinking that it was kind of funny that this strange animal is like the national animal of China - one of the nation's symbols. An animal who, over the ages has evolved into a completely non-self sustaining animal, who needs intervention to ward off extinction. Hmmm....

On the bus ride home we also got to speaking with another couple from the states over here teaching English. They were telling us about all of the good places to go to get Western food and other goods. We must have seemed pretty pathetic to the other tourists on the bus (the non-resident kind) - "oh, my god, they're in China and want nothing but tacos." But, hey, at that particular moment, I would have sold my everlasting soul for a good Mexican meal dripping with cheese (and a Dr. Pepper to boot).