Observation on Tourists at the Chengdu Panda Base

It was an extraordinary opportunity for me to have a 5-day experience living and working with giant pandas, a creature known as one of Chinas national treasures. Through these days of being animal keeper and camper in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding I learned so much. Not only did the experience expand […]

Pandas: No Joke

For most of my 16 years I held a rather low opinion of the giant panda as a species. After learning a few things about pandas, I judged them to be a failure in God’s creation that Were poorly adapted to nature. I often preached this rather shallow theory to others, feeling as though it […]

Giant Panda: It’s not Always Black and White

The popular perception is that giant pandas are only black and white, yet they can sometimes be various color phases, including brown and white. Several of these brown and white pandas were found in Shaanxi’s Foping National Nature Reserve. First sighting of a brown and white panda On the morning of 26 March 1985,1 traveled […]

Playing Panda Matchmaker

Giant panda cubs are adorable, fuzzy balls of black and white fur. Zoo visitors regularly flock to catch a glimpse of these rarely seen animal stars. But when Jon I Ballou, from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and Kathy Traylor-Holzer, from the IUCN SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group see panda cubs, they see them as […]

Giant Panda’s Friends International

My name is Andreas Freund and I live in Frankfurt, Germany. I work full-time as a controller in a distribution company for medical devices. Otherwise, I am committed to giant pandas and in 2012 I founded Giant Panda Friends International, a small, German, non-profit organization focused on giant panda protection. I am trying to raise […]

I am a Volunteer

I am honored to have participated in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding’s Liang Mountain Giant Panda Reserves Environmental Educational Summer Camp Program. Six Chinese university students and three graduate students from the United States volunteered to organize two summer camps for local primary school students who live and study near giant panda […]

Lost in Panda

I am Margarita Lau from Hong Kong, China. Friends often refer to me as a “panda addict”, “panda queen”, “panda big sister”, “Ms. Panda”, or “Aunt Panda”. Everyone, including acquaintances, all ask one question: “Why do you love giant pandas so much?” Everyone has a favorite animal and giant pandas are mine. Some have suggested […]

An Amazing Journey with Giant Panda

With heightened curiosity, I flew all the way from Hong Kong to Chengdu to join the International Internship Program at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Whenever I reminisce about this intensive giant panda journey, I am filled with gratitude for such an amazing, unforgettable, surreal, and exciting experience. The giant pandas I […]

Akemi Tanaka: A Dedicated Panda Fan

Each time the staff at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Foundation mentioned Akemi Tanaka, a feeling of warmth and happiness pervaded the room. Since her first dose contact with pandas on July 8, 2011, Tanaka has come to Sichuan to visit pandas at least once a month. Her schedule while in Sichuan was always […]

To Those Who Care for Giant Pandas

I work in the Conservation Education Department at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to help spread conservation information about giant pandas. My job gives me many opportunities to meet people from around the world, gathering in one place because of their curiosity and love for giant pandas. Each person pays respect and […]