Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Panda Research Center




The largest panda research center in the world is in Chengdu. They do a lot of genetic research, breeding, observations, and natural preservation. It was so cool to see so many pandas up close and have the opportunity to take so many pictures. It was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Chengdu.

99% of pandas diets come from bamboo, which isn't very filling. So pandas generally eat and eat and eat and when they aren't eating, they are sleeping. They are so cute though... Cute and LAZY! Because of that, they are also horrible at mating. This is one of the problems why there aren't so many pandas in the wild anymore.

There were red pandas there. I had never heard of a red panda before. They aren't bears though. They are more like a mix between foxes and cats. They are really fluffy and their faces kind of look like pandas. They also eat primarily bamboo like pandas do. They, however, are much more active than pandas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Emily has some really cute videos of Red Pandas. They're pretty much the coolest things ever.