Snow, the greatest thing since bamboo shoots ...
Print Edition
A PAIR of giant pandas seem to be loving their first winter in north China’s Heilongjiang Province, playing with a snowman and rolling around in the snow.
When a blizzard dumped 40 centimeters of snow on the ski resort of Yabuli, thousands of kilometers from home, pandas Si Jia and You You started living it up. “They are just like kids playing in the snow,” said keeper Yan Yongbin at the Yabuli Giant Panda House.
Temperatures in Heilongjiang rarely get over minus 10 degrees Celsius at this time of year, but Si Jia and You You are happy to spend eight hours a day outdoors rather than huddling in their centrally-heated house.
Staff frequently hide bamboo in the snow, and when they find it, the pandas sit in the snow and begin munching right there and then.
Female Si Jia, 10, and You You, an 8-year-old male, came from Sichuan Province in July, becoming the most northerly pandas in China. The pandas at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland are 1,200 kilometers further north, but the climate there is much less severe.
Considering the winter at Yabuli is 20 degrees lower and much drier than that in Sichuan, the pandas’ house has been equipped with every conceivable comfort, and vets are on standby in case they catch a cold.
According to Tang Cheng, a researcher at the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, where the pair are from, the weight and fur density of the pandas has not changed much. “The two pandas have adapted well to local conditions,” he said.
Bamboo is delivered from Sichuan every five days. They also eat apples, carrots, cereal and steamed buns made from corn.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
