Sichuan: Land of abundance, home of the Panda

Our trip to Chengdu capital ofSichuan province meant one thing – Pandas! Our lack of seeing any wildlife in China fuelled the want to see something other than Chinese tourists, and with our hostel describing the Panda as a Carnivorous living fossil, Kung Fu panda showing it to be rather apt at noodle making and martial arts and the panda being Chinas Olympic mascot this year, in my mind made the Panda a must see!
Us Europeans were not aware of the Giant Pandas existence until 1869 when French naturalist Piere Armand David bought back a Panda pelt to the West and documented the panda. Now its one of the worlds most easily recognized mammals and is used for logos such as the WWF. Though descended from the carnivorous bear family this bear survives mainly on… you guessed it - bamboo. It seems however that the Pandas digestive system hasn’t evolved at the same rate as the pandas love for bamboo so they have to eat huge amounts to survive, around 20kg a day (depending on the part of the plant they eat) and even then only a small percentage of the plants nutritional value is absorbed. Once living all over China, it is now restricted to five small mountainous areas in the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. There are only thought to be about 1000 left in the wild. The decline in the population is due to two linked factors – The bamboo itself flowers and dies en-mass every 25 years; whole bamboo forests die forcing the pandas to walk for miles to find new feeding grounds. With Chinas huge population and development clearing land for living and agriculture the bamboo areas are no longer connected together, so poor old Mr Panda starves.
The giant panda breeding base on the outskirts of Chengdu lays claim to about 60 pandas and focuses unsurprisingly, on breeding pandas. On our arrival on a very wet day we were coupled together with two other westerners and a guide. We luckily soon managed to part with the guide as she was whisking us past all written information and heading straight to the main attraction, which was not our idea of learning anything.
The base has a giant panda museum and a rather graphic cinema documentary to set the scene for the panda. In the museum we got to see what dried panda poo looks like – wood chips – OUCH! A pickled panda digestive system, panda skeletons and scenes of pandas roaming the lands of China with wooly mammoths and saber tooth tigers. The cinema documentary took us through the life of a panda, nearly all of which is spent eating and sleeping. Once past their early teens this is all they can afford to do to conserve energy. We then get to see some failing attempts at panda mating – for an endangered species they aren’t half picky. With no success on the natural front we are shown the finer details of artificial insemination. Then comes birth. With a pregnancy period of only 5-7 months the baby panda is a long way from anything panda like on arrival. Looking more like a baby hamster than a bear. When the baby is due the Panda sits down and with an unceremonious, liquidy pop a tiny pink panda no bigger than the palm of your hand flies about a foot or two into the air crash landing on the floor and the mother gets up to look for it. Quite bazaar. The make sure to show you this a couple of times as it is quite easy to miss. Once even in slow motion. In the base as soon as the baby is out on the floor it is snatched away through the bars and taken away for measuring, documenting and caring for. Though this may seem harsh the documentary went on to justify it by showing a new mother, having located her newborn, swiping and hitting it around the floor, scared of it. This was however a first time mother. Second time round they often make excellent parents from the start. Though with this first time mother attitude I struggle to see how the species has made it this far. In zoos pandas can live up to around 35 years old. In the wild it can be as old as 50.
On our wet, bamboo lined walk around the base we saw two adult pandas and five sub-adult (early teen) pandas enjoying their bamboo in the rain. Luckily we had arrived at the base early enough to catch feeding time and therefore the pandas at their most active. We also paid a visit to the nursery. Unfortunately new babies are popped out in the autumn so no luck there, but we did get to see some large teddy bear size ones rolling around and playing in their area. For ¥1200 you could hold one of these young pandas. Though too expensive for us a businessman and his wife wanted to hold one. After getting dolled up in aprons and gloves they were sat on a large wooden bench in the centre of the nursery area so all other tourists could see and fight for front row views. The young panda was then carried out like a loveable fairground toy, placed on the mans lap and given some apples. All this was done to squeals of excitement and jostling from the Chinese crowd. Though the panda appeared unfazed, previous signs about keeping quiet around the young pandas made me feel sorry for it, but it seemed happy enough munching on its apples.
Throughout the base there is lots of information on conservation, habits and habitat along with famous animal related quotes: ‘Wildlife is not food’ and ‘You can judge a nation by the way they treat their animals’. Well, with hardly any animals left in the wild, monkeys performing on the street to the sound of a whip, Beijing Zoo and everything from dogs to crickets kept in cages I think I have made my judgment. It may have reflected better if it had said ‘You can judge a nation by the way they treat their pandas’, as the breeding base was very good, informative and a tribute to what the Chinese are capable of in terms of animal welfare. It is just a shame no other animals get such national treasure acknowledgement.
In a recent article we read the fight for the Olympic mascot was a tough one with contestants being the Monkey King, the Tibetan Antelope and the Panda to name a few. The Monkey King was thought too disruptive, as a mischievous character to represent China in the games. The Tibetan Antelope on the other hand embodied the Olympic spirit; with determination and stamina it is able to run vast distances at high altitudes over the Tibetan plateau. This endangered animal (hunted for its fine coat) would have been a great and unusual mascot and the increased publicity would have helped its cause. Then the Panda, who was thought to be a bit of a chubby, non-Olympian sort of fellow was transformed, by the magazine justifying the choice, into a charming, witty beast who, I kid you not, has the ability ‘to be good at all sports, except golf’. Luckily for the Chinese golf isn’t an Olympic event. Although already the mascot for the Asian games the Chinese inability to think outside the box has meant that the very predictable and loveable Panda will be bringing the Chinese luck this year.