Pandas International's Suzanne Braden's 2011 Trip to China
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Day One
I left Chengdu this morning and after lunch visited the old town of Shang Li. It’s a well preserved town site with bridges at least 500 years old in the Bi Feng gorge. I than arrived at the Bifengxia Panda Center and immediately met Dr. Wang to deliver the Distemper Vaccinations. This was good timing as he repackaged some for one of the caretakers to take Thursday morning to Giant Pandas in another city. Dr. Wang was very pleased to receive them. I was very pleased that the ice gel packs were still in good condition and the vaccines were still cool! I also delivered worming paste to Dr. Tang and one of the other vets. The Access China Tour group went to the volunteer office and got their work overalls and volunteer badges so they would be ready to work the next day. |
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Day Two
The Milk Formula arrived yesterday. Customs must have been waiting for me to arrive before they released it. The arrival was just in time because the reserve was getting very low and the one year olds needed their milk. A big thank you to Cindy Lo for all her hard work on this project!
The drive up to Bifengxia from Ya’an took longer than normal. There were two problems: one, the corn had been harvested and kernels removed from the cob. The right lane of the road was being used for drying corn on straw mats; second, the constant rock and mud slides have caused large piles of rocks to accumulate in one lane. In one spot the downhill lane was about half gone so the road was down to one lane in several places. Rains not only create problems for travel but also for the Giant Pandas by damaging their bamboo.
Thursday morning I observed the volunteers from Access China Tours. Sometimes they get off to a slow start. Overall, I think they were overwhelmed being so close to the Pandas and surprised at the amount of panda poop they were cleaning up but everyone seemed thrilled with the experience. In the afternoon I went with Huang Yan to the enclosure of Zhang Ka, the one panda who has so far given birth at Bifengxia. They have turned one of the large enclosures into a semi-wild enclosed area and built artificial dens where she gave birth. Zhang Ka had twins so the other twin is being raised in the Nursery in an incubator provided by Pandas International.
Zhang Ka and her cubs are monitored constantly from the office where there are numerous cameras focused on the enclosure. Zhang Ka had twins so the first born is with her and the second cub is in the nursery. After watching her on the monitor, we then went to the nursery to see the second cub in the incubator. The cub was already showing the beginnings of some black fur. I finished up my day by having dinner with the Access China Tour group and talking about Pandas International in particular and the Giant Panda in general. |
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Day Three
Most of today was spent traveling from Ya’an to Chengdu to meet Board Member Brad Brieman in Chengdu then going up to Dujiangyan. |
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Day Four
Saturday was a busy day. I met Dr. Tang early to head to Wolong which required special permission and nerves of steel to make the trip. Wenchaun, the town at the epicenter of the earthquake in 2008, was amazing. I could hardly see any damage as the entire town was all new except for one block left as a memorial where buildings were tilted in all directions at 20-30 degree angles and offered a stark visual reminder of the tragedy that occurred there.
One of the goals for this trip was to try and get back to see the Wolong Nature Reserve, the progress on building the new Panda Base and to see the condition of the old Panda Base. I knew the road would make for extremely difficult travel and I knew the mountains would look decimated yet I was still not prepared for what we saw and the conditions of the road. Trying to describe the landscape I thought of “moonscape” or “strip mining” — nothing but rock as far as you could see — an unending lava flow of rock down the mountain; not a tree, not a house; nothing but rock. The “road” was nothing more than where the largest of the boulders had been pushed out of the way so we could travel across the rock fields. “White knuckle” hardly begins to describe the traveling. But I achieved my goal of getting to see what was important.
Closer to the old Wolong Panda Center, the destruction diminished and the road was not bad. I started to recognize the landscape I remembered and knew we were close. Looking at the bridge at the old Panda Center was extremely sad as the entrance gate had either been torn down or buried in a rock slide. The whole place had a very eerie feel. Entering the Center was like being in a ghost town. Many rooms were left just as they had been at the moment of the quake. Boulders were in places they should not be like on the steps of the hospital. Dr. Tang said the “hospital” was broken by “flying stone.” There was a sense of overwhelming devastation. The nursery and kindergarten yard were over grown but staff and a few Giant Pandas had returned to begin the next chapter in the history of the Center. Although the Wolong Panda Center suffered major damage in the earthquake, many buildings and enclosures are still intact. Most of the re-introduction program is currently taking place at Wolong. Currently, there are 4 moms at Wolong: Cao Cao who delivered in 2010, Xi Xi who had twins in 2011 and Jin Zhu and Su Lin who both had single cubs in 2011. Cao Cao and her cub Tao Tao are in the largest semi wild enclosure at the top of the mountain and both are doing well. They are monitored by 30 cameras in the enclosure. Huang Yan, the researcher on the reintroduction project, reports Cao Cao is using more vocalizations to call Tao Tao than other mothers and cubs in captivity due to the size of their enclosure Tao Tao can get out of Cao Cao’s sight so she needs to call to him. In the captive enclosures the cubs are never out of mom’s sight.
Su Lin, who got off to a rocky start as a mom, is now doing a good job and both mom and cub are doing well. One of the largest enclosures was made into a semi wild area and has become over grown and natural. I could not see Su Lin or her cub as they stay in the artificial den built for them but Dr. Deng reported they also are doing well.
Jin Zhu and her cub are also in another enclosure that was converted into a semi wild area. Both are doing well. The fourth mom, Xi Xi, had twins. Both were with her in one of the old birthing enclosures. Once the cubs are about two months of age mom can handle both at one time. The last mom, Jin Zhu, and her cub were also doing very well. The researchers will study the 4 litters in the 4 different environments to see if there is any difference in the behavior of the cubs. New Wolong It was a long trip back down to Dujiangyan and a quick change before Brad and I had dinner with Director Zhang Hemin and Dr. Li Desheng.
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