Pambassador @ Zoo Madrid - day 3
November 29, 2010: day 3 in Madrid.
Hua Zuiba was outside, just like yesterday. She enjoyed her food and the fresh air on this cold day.
In the Panda House, construction workers of the zoo were building a wooden crib for the cubs, just like at the Sunshine Nursery House in Chengdu. The Chinese keepers were looking if the crib would be safe for the cubs and after their approval all keepers started to clean the crib.
Hua Zuiba wanted to go inside and take care of one of her cubs. Yuan Bo took cub A and placed her in the den. I had the amazing chance to see this. Hua Zuiba was a little nervous. She had never seen a Pambassador before. Keeper Yuan Bo told me she was also shy when he was in the room for the first time. He really introduced me to her: ‘Hua Zuiba, this is Jeroen’ ‘Jeroen, this is Hua Zuiba’. And after finishing some pieces of apple she lost her interest in me and walked to her cub. You can see how the keepers have to use a big fishing net to move the cub. It was very interesting to see Hua Zuiba take care of the cub. When she becomes hungry, Hua Zuiba pushes the cub to another side of the enclosure and comes to the bars, asking for food.
Cub B stayed in the incubator. It was still too cold in the Panda House to move the cub to the wooden crib.
Bing Xing enjoyed his outside time. It started to snow and he really liked it. The Spanish panda keeper Rebeca told me that both pandas like snow very much. When Bing Xing & Hua Zuiba were together last winter, they really played together on one day, the day when their outside garden turned into a winter wonderland. Too bad it only snowed just a little bit; otherwise Bing Xing would have become very excited.
Both cubs debuted in their new crib in the late afternoon. The heating system did its job and it became 22° Celsius in the Panda House. The cubs enjoyed their new living space and now you can see them in their crib. They have more space than in the incubator and they can crawl around… Keeper Chen Min was there to help the cubs so they couldn’t get stuck between the bars. A next stage in the growing-up process.
Grtz Pambassdor Jeroen Jacobs
