Adelaide Keepers meet wild pandas
Adelaide Zoo Senior Panda Keeper Simone Davey is talking about 2 wild pandas in Ya’an Bi Feng Xia:
The first is about a wild caught female that has been at the centre for number of years. She was found in the wild with what is thought to be an injury that occurred from an illegal snare trap placed out in the forest. When she was bought into the panda base, her front left paw was so badly injured that it had to be amputated. The good news is that she was able to make a full recovery and a couple of years ago she even gave birth to twins, adding more genetic diversity to the captive population.
While she will never be able to be re-released into the wild she does live a very good life at the centre. Her number one joy is climbing a huge tree in her exhibit and falling asleep up there for hours at a time. While I was in China I made sure I would walk by her exhibit every morning hoping to see a glimpse of her climbing abilities. The height of the tree is impressive for any panda to climb but with only one front paw this would have been an incredible sight to see!
Well, on my very last day of the trip I was lucky enough to see her coming down from the tree. I just happened to be walking past her exhibit when she woke up and decided she was hungry. It is amazing how controlled she was when slowly moving down the huge trunk. As a matter of fact I think she gave Fu Ni and Wang Wang a run for their money with how graceful she was! It is so nice to see such a resilient animal that has come back from a devastating injury and is now able to live a long and fulfilling life.
This leads me to another amazing story of a female panda that arrived during our second week at the base. The staff had received a call from their co-workers at Wolong informing them that they had come across a sick wild panda and did not have the proper facilities to care for her. Jason and I were able to see the arrival of this female after an eight hour car drive by staff from Wolong to Bifengxia panda base. It was an amazing experience to see this shy wild female be off loaded and taken into the vet block. She was taken to a quiet exhibit, given access to fresh bamboo, some panda cake, an apple and was left to recover from her journey.
The next day she was put under general anaesthetic and given a complete health check by the vets. The vets were not able to find any definitive result as to why she was so lethargic but put her onto some strong antibiotics to fight off any infection that she may have had. The following day she was given access out into her exhibit as she was starting to look a little bit brighter. By day 5 of her being at the panda base she seemed to be eating quite well, even some of the unfamiliar panda cake and apple. The staff at Bifengxia were quite confident that she would recover fully and then be returned to the wild. It was so nice to see this female panda doing better every day and knowing that she would see the wild again.
Simone Davey, Senior Panda Keeper @ Adelaide Zoo
