Washington Zoo Tour  
  that Volunteered at the  
  Bifengxia Panda Center  
 

Mary O'Neill has provided information about the Washington Zoo tour right after ours:

Just as we were arriving home from our tour, another one left Washington with a woman named Angela Wessel, who is long-time volunteer at the National Zoo. She has been volunteering over 30 years there and now, works the live cams showing the panda bears at the National Zoo. Anyway, her tour group also went to China for 14 days, but it was a very different tour from ours. They didn't stay in 5-star hotels but they did get to volunteer at Bifengxia! The tales they are telling will just melt your heart. They bathed the yearlings and cleaned their enclosures; they hugged, they KISSED, and they came away with the experience of a lifetime. I am enclosing some pictures of them bathing the cubbies and will copy and paste some of the stories of their adventure.

Pictures from this tour: 2940 pictures!

Stories from this tour:

Our 3 day volunteer experience was over the top! The adult pandas, Ling Ling and La La were adorable. In cleaning their enclosures, we removed old boo, along with d'bugs (poop) and leftover carrots and apples. While we did this they were outside and would come up to the screen and make little panda noises at us. *melt* The old boo would be put in a pile and wrapped up with pink ribbon-like string. The d'bugs were swept into a 3 sided aluminum thing and dumped into a trashcan or basket. There was no smell! And man could that Ling d'bug! We also cleaned up outside (in the pouring rain). It was quite slippery as it seemed it was built on a slight slope and there was alot of slate. Rain+d'bugs=YIKES!

When the enclosures were completely (and I mean completely) swept of everything, the keeper would hose it down or we would mop it (depending on the keeper preference), then squeegie it dry. New boo would be placed, the door locked and the panda would come back in if it wanted (which it usually did cause next came panda bread!). We were then given a tray with panda bread, apples and/or carrots. Ling Ling liked the food thrown in his mouth and La La would gently take it from you. When the keepernanny saw that we were being careful in feeding them, he would go about finishing up and this is when we would sneak a pat. Stacy and I took photos of each other feeding our pandas and I hope to post some soon, as soon as I can focus!

All da pandas seemed to really like our voices. Jo's one little girl, a 5 year old, was so sweet and gentle. Jo would talk to her and hand her carrots and panda bread and she would just look at her. So sweet! I walked over and told her what a pretty girl she was and she was so curious that she looked me in the eye.

Such a great experience! Jo and I were giggling like school girls in the pouring rain sweeping up wet boo leaves and doodlebugs.

the cubbies loved their baths! They would eat their shoots and wanna hold hands and look up at you with those cubbie eyes full of cubbie love.

Just a few of the many pictures from this tour:

Mr. Fung preparing panda bread
and carrots for the pandas.		 Treats go in here, lady!

Prepared by Neal R. Wagner, last modified on 2008-10-23.