Wolong Pandas

Baby Panda feeding from a bottle at Wolong Panda Center in Sichuan, China.

The Wolong Panda Conservation Center is about halfway (by time) between Rilong Town and Chengdu. I decided to stop and stay there overnight, and get another dose of Pandas. It as also nice to break the nine hour bus ride into a five hour and a four hour segment.

The Panda Inn is right outside the Conservation Center, and is reasonably cheap.

Juvenile Pandas wrestling at Wolong, Sichuan, China. — Panda ‘rasslin’!

The Wolong center has more baby and juvenile pandas than Chengdu’s center. The juveniles spend most of the day sleeping, but they can be coaxed into playing.

Panda keeper playing with juvenile Panda at Wolong, Sichuan, China.

Here, one of the workers is getting the pandas riled up. Once they get going, then they become quite playful. Otherwise, they spend most of the day like this:

Juvenile Panda in a comfortable pose atop a tree trunk, in Wolong, Sichuan, China. — Mmmmm! Comfy.

Pile of juvenile Pandas on a platform, in Wolong, Sichuan, China.

After play time, it’s time for some apples and carrots. The carrots are ignored until the apples are finished.

Keepers feeding juvenile Pandas at Wolong, Sichuan, China.

The pandas eat a lot of bamboo, but get very little nutrition out of it. The Wolong center and San Diego zoo worked together to develop a “bamboo leaf cake” for the pandas:

Leaf cake made for feeding Pandas. — Leaf cake made for feeding Pandas, at Wolong Panda Center in Sichuan, China.

In Wolong, the pandas are actually in area where they normally live. The Chengdu panda center is more artificial. Pandas live in the mountains, and Chengdu is on a plain.

Looking down onto the Wolong Panda Center, in Sichuan China.

It’s hard to beat juvenile pandas when it comes to cuteness. Here are some more photos:

Pandas forming a totem pole. — Pandas forming a totem pole, at Wolong, Sichuan, China.

Pandas playing king of the hill. — Pandas playing king of the hill at Wolong, Sichuan, China.