A sharing by Ling Sing Lin
Who can resist this cute and cuddly looking bear? It is the rarest member of the bear family. It is among the world’s most threatened animals because of habitat loss, which prevents them from finding new bamboo forests and potential mates. Panda bears are found only in the wild in south central China. There are only an estimated 1600 to 2000 giant pandas in the wild. Any panda in a zoo is a loan from China. The cost of leasing a panda for a year is US$1m for the US (I am not sure whether other countries pay the same rate). This makes the panda the most expensive animal in the zoo. The panda’s diet comprise 99% of bamboo. They defecate up to forty times a day.
The female panda is only fertile 3 days a year. Pandas lose interest in mating once they are captured. Artificial insemination was the primary method used on pandas in captivity. Subsequently, even showing them videos of mating pandas and giving the males Viagra have been tried.
They are so cute but that is not the reason that the panda bear is selected as the logo for the World Wildlife Fund since 1961. The reason for the logo is the low cost of printing it.
I carried a Baby Panda!
In 2011, my medical class made a trip to Yunnan, China. We visited, amongst many other tourist sites, the Chengdu Panda Base. This is the only place in the world where you are allowed to hold a baby panda. To dissuade too many people from doing so, the privilege of carrying a baby panda was priced at RMB 1000 (S$200), and to just stand next to a baby panda and take a picture, it was RMB 400.
As it was one of the main purposes of my visit to Yunnan, do or die, I intended to carry the baby panda. It was near the end of the trip, and my store of RMB was low. Of course I would not give up, so I borrowed the requisite sum from one of my classmates.
I had to be gowned, but not masked. The gown was to protect the baby panda, not the other way around. The baby panda was quite big, and it sat on my lap, contentedly chewing some tasty tender bamboo leaves. I was surprised that it weighed no more than a toy of an equivalent size.
That was the highlight of my trip! I now have bragging rights of having carried a baby panda!
Panda Poo Toilet Paper
I recently saw a Channel 8 programme which featured toilet paper made of panda poo. The adult panda eats 20-24 kg of bamboo leaves a day, chewing almost continuously over 12-14 hours every day. It produces more than 10 kg of poo daily. The bamboo pulp is odorless, and can be used immediately to make toilet paper, which is strong and elastic. This environmentally friendly initiative can potentially save many trees.
Red Panda
The red panda was also present in the Chengdu Panda Reserve. In my opinion, it is a poor cousin of the giant panda. It is much smaller and is reddish brown in colour. There are only an estimated 2500 to 10,000 red pandas left in the world.
Lesson Learnt
As a global conservation icon, giant pandas are living proof that conservation works. Wild panda numbers are starting to recover, but they remain at risk. Human activities of habitat destruction are the biggest threat to their survival.
lingsinglin
Dr Ling Sing Lin is a medical doctor by training. She worked in MOH HQ for many years, in policy making and administrative positions, until her retirement.
