Daily life a balance of eating, sleeping

It's 7:30 in the morning, and pandas at Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria, are starting their day.

The keepers take them to an outside enclosure for breakfast while they clean the interior and stock it with fresh bamboo.

"Cleaning out the panda enclosures is hard work, but it's great fun as the pandas have to be moved around," says Renate Haider, a keeper who has been minding Yang Yang and Long Hui since 2003.

"Yang Yang enjoys taking a nap around noon, often between 11 am and 1 pm," Haider says. "After the nap, another portion of bamboo waits outdoors. About three times a week we perform training with the pandas, based on positive reinforcement."

In the training sessions, the animals are confronted with extra tasks for a few minutes, during which health checks can be carried out stress-free and without anesthetics, Haider says.

Panda experts say the bears can spend as long as 14 hours a day eating, since they consume at least 12 to 38 kilograms of food daily, including tender bamboo stems, shoots and leaves. Because bamboo has few calories, pandas maximize its value by sleeping much of the day.

They alternate their activities between sleeping and eating, Haider says. "Yang Yang eats approximately 30kg of bamboo daily, but the amount varies a lot. Sometimes she only likes to eat about 10 kg, depending on the season."

She added: "Our pandas also get a special cake made of bamboo flour, rice flour, cornflour, eggs and oat flakes. As a special treat, they sometimes receive sweet potatoes or carrots."

Yang Yang was born on Aug 10, 2013. She arrived at Schonbrunn in May 2013 with her male partner, Long Hui, who died from a malignant tumor of the bile ducts in December. The average life span of captive pandas is 25 to 30 years.

The pair successfully bred Fu Long, Fu Hu and Fu Bao in 2007, 2010, and 2013, respectively.

Haider was part of the transfer team that sent Fu Hu and Fu Bao to their new home when they turned 2, an arrangement agreed upon by contract.

"Different from Vienna, a huge number of pandas are living at the panda base in Chengdu," Haider says. "It was a wonderful experience to see all their different personalities and behaviors."

In August 2016, twins Fu Feng and Fu Ban were born. They are being raised by Yang Yang without the help of keepers, the first time a female panda in captivity has raised twins without assistance, according to Schonbrunn Zoo.

"Yang Yang enjoys playing with her twins, as well as hugging and cleaning them. Fu Feng and Fu Ban also love to climb the highest trees in the enclosure," Haider says.

Giant pandas are self-indulgent animals, and adults are kept separate most of the time. However, Yang Yang and Long Hui grew up together in a youth group at the Wolong reserve before moving to Vienna. Eveline Dungl, Schonbrunn's curator, is convinced that growing up together, and their age at the time of relocation, are of great importance to their breeding success.

wangmingjie@mail.chinadailyuk.com

Zoos in Europe sign onto panda projects

Currently, there are six European countries with zoos hosting giant pandas, with Berlin Zoo poised to welcome two animals later this month. Another two are due to arrive in Finland at the end of the year.

Spain

In September 2007, a pair of giant pandas, Bing Xing and Hua Zuiba, arrived in Spain, on loan for 10 years as part of a conservation cooperation project with China.

In September 2010, giant panda Hua Zuiba gave birth to twins (Po and De De), marking the first success in breeding panda twins overseas via artificial insemination since the inception of China's long-term international breeding project.

Both Po and De De were sent back to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in May 2013 as stipulated in the loan agreement. Hua Zuiba later gave birth to another two cubs, Xing Bao in 2013 and Chulina in 2016.

Germany

Bao Bao and Tian Tian were sent to Berlin in 1980 as a gift from then-Chinese leader Hua Guofeng to West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. After the death of female Tian Tian in February 1984, Bao Bao lived as a bachelor in the German capital until 2012, and was the oldest male giant panda in captivity at the time of his death. His age was estimated at 34 years.

Following months of negotiations between China and Germany, Berlin will welcome two new giant pandas from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding this month.

Austria

In 2003, a pair of pandas - Long Hui and Yang Yang - arrived at Vienna's Schonbrunn Zoo from Wolong National Nature Reserve. Born in August 2007, Fu Long was their first offspring and Europe's first panda to be conceived naturally.

Yang Yang gave birth to Fu Hu in 2010 and Fu Bao in 2013. Those three have already been sent back to China, but the zoo welcomed twin cubs Fu Feng and Fu Ban in August 2016.

The 16-year-old male Long Hui, who fathered five cubs in captivity, died of a stomach tumor in December.

UK

Tian Tian, a female, and Yang Guang, a male, were both born in 2003. They arrived at the Edinburgh Zoo in 2011 as part of a 10-year agreement on panda conservation signed by China and the UK.

The previous pandas in the UK - Ming Ming and Bao Bao - left the London Zoo in 1994 after failing to mate.

France

In January 2012, male panda Yuan Zai and female Huan Huan flew from the Chengdu panda base to Zoo Parc de Beauval in France to serve as research subjects in a 10-year China-France joint breeding project. The project concentrates on key breeding technologies and is part of a preliminary study of approaches for releasing captive pandas into the wild.

Belgium

A pair of giant pandas from Sichuan province - Xing Hui, a male, and Hao Hao, a female - arrived at their new home in Belgium's Pairi Daiza zoo, some 60 kilometers southwest of downtown Brussels, in February 2014 on a 15-year lease.

The pandas are the first China has sent overseas on such a lease. A cub, Tian Bao, was born at the zoo in June 2016.

The Netherlands

Wu Wen and Xing Ya, two Chinese giant pandas, arrived in April at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam for a 15-year stay in a Dutch zoo, making the Netherlands the seventh European country to host this endangered and adorable black-and-white bear.

Finland

China and Finland signed a 15-year agreement for research and conservation of giant pandas during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the country in April. As part of the agreement, China will place a pair of the animals at Ahtari Zoo Park.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 06/16/2017 page7)