Here they are again with Su Lin being a good mama and watching over her sleeping cub.
I promised Frances that I’d get some pictures of Su Lin and her new baby while in China. Little did I know that this request would be harder to fulfill than I originally thought!
We left Ya’an on the 10th, stopped at the Dujiangyan giant panda base for lunch and to see Yun Zi, and then traveled 2 bumpy hours in a jeep down the current (should not be traveled on) road to Wolong.
The road to Hetaoping (Wolong) was pretty much like driving on a one-lane gravel quarry with a sheer drop into the river on the side of the road.
I arrived at the Hetaoping Giant Panda Base (the base that was destroyed by the earthquake in 2008 at Wolong) with the San Diego Zoo team on the night of March 10th and we left on the morning of the 12th so it ended up being a quick, jam-packed visit. In addition to having meetings about potential future collaborations, we visited both Hetaoping and Gengda (the site of the new breeding base) so we didn’t get a whole lot of chances for panda viewing.
It took me two entire days but I finally managed to get a view of them! It wasn’t an awesome view (positioned at the entrance of the inside chamber slumbering just out of the range of my camera and not visible from the inside) but I’m happy to report that we were able to see that they were relaxed and healthy.
Su Lin and her baby taking a nap at the Hetaoping giant panda base
The baby slept the entire time but Su Lin came out to eat once.
The morning of the 11th we woke to a fresh covering of snow that was just gorgeous. If you have the inclination to visit China I would highly recommend going to the Gengda Base (it will open to the public once the roads become passable). I’ll have a whole post on visiting there in a couple of days.
Wolong giant panda base with a fresh covering of snow
-Meg
Thank you so much! Were you able to see Zhen Zhen? I hear her cub died–any idea what happened?
Thank you Meg and Maria. I adopted Su Lin’s cub after my volunteer visit to Bifengxia. Lovely to see first photos of them.
Rosemary,
It was so nice to see them doing well! I’m glad you adopted them!
Thank you Meg it is great to see her and her cubbie I got to see her about 2 days before she had to go back by any chance did you get ant pictures of Yun Zi I miss him so much
Susan, I did get photos of Yun Zi and will show you his beautiful new enclosure at Dujiangyan in the next couple of weeks! So many photos and so little time!
I’ve tasked Ryan with doing blog posts and updates on the San Diego pandas that are at Bifengxia so we’ll be doing updates with Zhen Zhen and Mei Sheng very soon! – sorry again for the quality of the photos they weren’t being the best models 🙂
Plus I have photos of Hua Mei and Hua Rong – coming soon too!
Thank you, Meg–and thank Ryan in advance!
Thank you so much for posting news and photos of Su Lin and her baby!! I will look forward to your report of vsiting Gengda as well. Will add to my 2017 list!
I’ll post photos of Gengda and of Dujiangyan in the next couple of weeks.
Meg, How did you arrange transport to Hetaoping & Gengda? The Panda club keeps telling me we can’t travel to Wolong yet. I have been there twice before the earthquake and the road was pretty bad then.
We were meeting with directors and managers at both bases under the San Diego Zoo program so I think they made a special exception for those meetings. The road to Hetaoping and Gengda were so bad I wouldn’t recommend traveling it (in retrospect I should have taken more video!) but they said the new road would be finished by the end of this year and it did look very close! Both bases are closed to the public right now but they’ve been moving pandas in preparation for the roads opening up.
https://www.facebook.com/savegiantpandas has the details of Yun Hui’s untimely death.
Yun Hui was Su Lin’s first born. He was only 3.5 yrs old
Thank you so much for posting photos of Su Lin and her baby!!
Of course! I love checking up on the San Diego Zoo pandas as much as everyone in the US likes to see the photos!