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| May 1st is International Workers Day (bet you Americans didn't know that) and so China and most of the world get a holiday. Onions and I made the three-day weekend into a five-day weekend and flew to Chengdu in Sichuan Province. One of many Panda Breeding and Research centers are located in the area. The sign says "Panda Boulevard" |
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| Time for some REAL pandas...... |
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| But we saw a LOT of this. Turns out the pandas are most active in the mornings and evenings when it's not HOT. |
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| Oh, and also this "prefer to sleep than play" was written on a MAJORITY of panda plaques. |
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| Even pandas are "sponsored," I mean adopted. |
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| The day was turning out to be kind of a dud until we walked into a building and saw these youngsters lounging around. |
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| Cuteness explosion |
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| Then we found the adult pandas doing the same thing. Here's our buddy sleeping on a rock. Turns out pandas are used to sleeping high up in trees for protection so can sleep in ALL KINDS of crazy positions. |
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| And over here, we've got our panda chowing down on bamboo. |
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| Turns out, I learned, that panda paws have five regular fingers and a special "thumb" specifically used for grabbing things, like bamboo. |
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| Here's our buddy rolling around in his food. The reason why pandas eat SO MUCH is that they have such short digestive tracks. Whereas humans can absorb 80% of nutrients in our food, pandas can only absorb about 17%. |
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| What goes in....comes out looking pretty much the same as it went in. I wish I had gotten a picture of the panda defecating, but it put it's rear end on the log facing us, and the rest of his body draped on the ground on the far side of the log. It was hilarious and beautiful. The panda seemed just so comfortable. |
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| And back to our rock sleeping panda. New position. |
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| All pandas are cute? Ummm, this isn't so attractive. It turns out that pandas are known by their keepers to be messy or clean. Some pandas with very white fur are known to be fastidious whereas others are dirty and have gray, not white fur. |
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| A panda in the wild. |
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