Saturday, August 27, 2011

Pandas!!!!

One of the top three things I wanted to do while here in China was see, and possibly touch, pandas! Well, I didn't get to touch them but I did get to be damn close to them. Through Andi's father's "connections," we were taken to an animal zoo/refugee. Here we were able to see panda's along with other animals, some of which had found new homes here after being injured from people, earthquakes, etc. Chinese zoo's are much different then American zoo's in the fact that we keep people reasonably far away from the animals. Most of the animals here I could reach out and touch if I wanted to, including a tiger!


The zoo had three pandas in it; two females and one male. We saw one of the females first who was awake but didn't want to get out of bed yet! She was quite content to just lie there and stare at us!


However the boy was quite active! He was very interested in all of us and gave quite a performance.

"I want to see my lawyer!! I know my rights!"

"Hey you. Yeah, you! I want my phone call!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."

"Let me out of here!!!"

Panda Ball!!


The second girl was passed out and didn't give a shit about us or getting up! I love how her legs are sprawled out in the photo above! All three of the pandas have their own houses which are connected but they rarely see each other. They like to have there own habitat and only will visit with each other when it is colder out. Since pandas are sacred here in China, they get the best accommodations. All three cages we went into were air conditioned.

Next door to the panda's were their cousins the red pandas. These guys are similar to cats in size and the way they behave. The little guy above was passed out high up in a tree when we found him.

Not the best photo but I love the rings in his tail.

It was fucking hot out that day!!


"Muddy" the crocodile.

As most of you know, in American zoo's you would at least be 20 feet away from tigers and that there is usually a small body of water preventing the tiger from getting close to you. Not in China! This big boy I could have reached out and touched if I really tried. He was absolutely beautiful and damn strong!

I felt kinda bad for him because he had two cages to roam around in roughly 20 x 20 feet. In America, we give them there own little world to roam around in.

 I was trying to get a better video but my camera decided right then to act up. In the video you can hear him give small roars at certain points. They were hosing down his cage and he wasn't happy about getting wet. We were told that about a year ago a guy was cleaning his cages and didn't lock the first one properly. He got into the cage where where the guy was cleaning, ripped off both arms and had a little snack before they could intervene. The man didn't live, needless to say. Lesson learned: don't turn you back on nature!!

Not sure what kinda of cat this was. She was much smaller.

Monkeys again!! When these guys saw us, they immediately put there arms through the gate and demanded food! Once again, I could have easily reached out and touched them. They tell you not to feed the animals but that doesn't stop anyone from giving them bags of chips and cookies. About a week ago here in China the government decided to have a free ticket day to a zoo in another province. They did this because the price of the tickets are so expensive(along with everything else here!), they were trying to get more people interested. Well, they defiantly were as over 10,000 people showed up at the zoo. However, with so many people there in one day giving the animals food that now most of the animals are sick and one monkey died. The zoo has been closed temporarily to give the animals a chance to recuperate. Smart move government officials!!!


Notice the baby in between both of them in the top two photos.

He was sooooo cute! And yes, the bag floating in the water to the right of him was something some people just gave them. Idiots!


The black bears had just been fed some nice cruncy chicken parts!

This bird had been saved and brought here to live. Half of it's top beak is missing. That's it's tough curling up that you see.

It's partner with a normal beak.

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