Blog List

Got up early but the pandas weren’t out and about much at all today. Erlang was up near the side fence chilling just before first feed at 8. Today I had yet a different keeper. This one is the usual keeper for YaYa and Erlang. So after 2 days of pretty much being left alone to do everything, Mr. Lee did a lot of the work for me. He was very cute with them, tummy rubbing, doing some strength training etc. He got me to hand feed them the apples I usually throw in which was a bit scary putting my fingers that close to those big teeth. Last session of the day he got me to do some strength training with an apple on a stick making them climb right up high. No wonder these two are such good climbers.





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The pandas weren’t very active this morning. Many weren’t out at all or just sitting a long way from the camera.



Erlang and YaYa were up on the hill mediating.



Others were looking for someone to play with. I had a different keeper today but she was just checking in on me. So I was pretty much left to move, clean, feed and generally just not get my arms ripped off by myself. While it’s nice they trust me to look after their precious pandas I do worry...

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After all the rain we had our first blue sky. The smog was gone and we could clearly see the mountain. I don’t want to think too hard about what happened to the smog but it’s great to see blue sky.



The pandas were out and playful this morning. They were up the trees.



Rolling around on the ground together.



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Today was really cold. Got up early and all the pandas were out which meant I could get a few pictures of ones that I don’t usually see. It’d rained overnight so most of them were a bit wet too so they looked like wet teddy bears.



The playful pair were out climbing trees, in their tyre and generally looking cute. One of them was trying to get pretty high in one of the trees and kept breaking branches that couldn’t hold them.



Even though they look really awkward they are really good climbers.



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We get the weekends off so had a bit of a sleep in this morning, then went and said hello to the pandas before we set off on our walk up the mountain in the background. I thought it’d be a nice walk through the trees but it turned out to be death by 1000 concrete stairs.



We’re heading for these flags at the top of the mountain. A couple of the other girls went the other day and took a bit of a wrong turn and went to a different peak so we were going to learn from their mistake.



As we climbed the stairs we could catch a bit of a view every now and then and could see the back of the golden...

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Today was our last day on the Ibis. My keeper let us take a photo inside the cages which was easier said than done. It’s actually really dark inside under the tree canopy and the Ibis don’t like to stay still. John and I smashed in both sessions this morning taking 40 mins for the first and 20 for the 2nd.





After lunch the panda keepers were doing some sort of training with apples so we went out to take some photos.



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This morning the pandas were up and playing in their enclosures and generally looking cute up trees and doing Kung Fu poses.



These guys love to climb trees, and pull on the branches.



I knew pandas climbed a bit but never realised how high and how proficient they are at climbing.



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There were a bunch of logs meant to become a swing for the black bears. Unfortunately a few of them had been eaten to bits by what looks like witchetty grubs. Not wanting to put it to waste we had a bit of a fire last night.

Lots of people ask me why we pay money to shovel shit, pick up rubbish and weed gardens. Well we sleep on site with the pandas only a few steps from our door. This means we can get up early when the pandas are really active and get cute pictures like these:





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Early this morning the pandas were out and were quite playful. They were up trees, play fighting and generally looking cute.



They make this interesting sound that reminds me of a cross between a lamb and a goat. So reckon if I stumbled past one in the wild I would think it’s a mountain goat by sound rather than a panda.



Today we were on Takin enclosure duty. The females look like a large goat.



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This morning we left the volunteer house and headed to the Shaanxi Wildlife and Rescue Centre, our home for the next two weeks. After moving our belongings into our twin share room which is quite large Tiger took us on a tour of the centre. Tiger was one of the panda keepers and has joined the volunteer team to help look after all the volunteers. There are a bunch of different animals here: Giant Pandas, Red Pandas, Tapir, Ibis, Peacocks, Vultures, Eagle, Owl, Golden Monkeys, Moon Bears, a Spotted leopard just to name a few.



Had our first lunch at Mr. Deng’s today – the reviews of it being really yummy food were not wrong! After lunch we spotted one of the pandas up the tree. This afternoon we spent a couple of hour weeding around the outside of the panda enclosures. Tough work – when we spot a panda outside we call a “Panda break” so we can all scramble to take pictures like the ones below and when the panda gets bored with it’s food and wanders off to find some cool concrete back to weeding...

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