Pandas Left In Wolong, 1 Year After The Sichuan Earthquake

Remembering the Wenchuan Earthquake One Year Later: The Wolong Pandas Left Behind

May 8, 2009
Source: Nanfang Daily

After eating, the panda only wants to lie around its pen, it takes a keeper to carry it outdoors.

As late as April of this year the Panda Kindergarten had still not been repaired.

Now the panda reserve’s sole resident is a young panda named Meme. Wang Bo, who remains at the park, every day brings Meme food. During the earthquake, Meme’s companion was killed by a falling rock and the panda playground was completely destroyed. Meme ran to a neighboring reserve to take refuge. Even though he was free, he kept returning. A year later, Wang Bo is the only one left to take care of him.

At the time of the earthquake, there was little space to take in pandas and there were very few toys. Three pandas temporarily had to squeeze together in one room. At least at that time they were safe and happy.

Before the earthquake, 63 adorable pandas lived here.

After the earthquake, the walls collapsed and the pens were destroyed. The pandas were transferred to the Bifengxia Panda Breeding Base in Ya’an, Sichuan, as well as sites in Beijing, Kunming, Fuzhou, etc. At the time, 6 pandas remained at the Wolong park silently waited for their 2 billion rmb panda protection and study center to be completed.

And the pandas who live in the wild near Wolong face serious challenges to their survival, too.

Last year 13 pandas were born in China. They are the hope for the animal’s survival.

Waiting has been a kind of torture, especially for the damaged Wolong center.

Life in the panda pen

“Please let me help you, just like I help myself; please let me watch out for you, just like we watch out for ourselves! . . . We live together in this world.” In the 1980s as the bamboo flowers bloomed, Cheng Lin’s “Panda Mimi” was sung.

A year after the earthquake, 60 year old Wang Youfu remains in the ruins of the “Panda Park.” He is the only worker left here.

At the end of March, some people found a homeless young panda wandering near Bailonggou. There were also 3 pandas who had been killed from falling rocks. Consequently, this lucky panda became Wang Youfu’s sole companion in the ruins of “Panda Park.” Trees were still toppled over, the surrounding wall was still rubble. The other pandas had long ago left this sad place. Every day Wang Youfu walked through the ruins of the park and watched the young panda eating. “As quiet as a cicada in winter,” the young panda told his story of devastation in the earthquake through his sad, lonely eyes.

This young panda’s new home, “Panda Park,” is within the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center. At the time of the earthquake, 63 pandas lived there. Afterwards, four pandas went missing. Yuanyuan, Guoguo, and Qianqian were later found in the surrounding areas, but the fourth remains missing.

In April the rain fell fast and hard on the 100 square meters of green enclosures. Six pandas wrestled together in a group, and turned somersaults behind the bars of their cramped cage. The day after the earthquake, most of the pandas were moved as part of the rescue effort to Ya’an, but 6 approximately 1-year-old pandas remained and silently awaited the completion of their new residence.

Around 11 o’clock in the morning, the pandas finished drinking their grape-flavored infant formula and each returned outside to eat bamboo. Their keeper, Zhang Yu, cut their food. “One panda every day drinks three bags of formula, and eats 30-40kg of bamboo, however they waste a lot. What they actually eat is not much.” Even in hard-hit Sichuan province, pandas still receive a high standard of care.

Although the rocking horse, the slide and the balls are temporary, this keeper solemnly cares for the pandas as if they were his own children, feeding them, bathing them, cleaning up after them and even talking to them. Four keepers day and night look after these 6 disaster survivor pandas.

When can Wolong get back to normal? Some people take the decline and rise of Wolong as a sign of Sichuan’s spirit. This world is saving strength and awaiting rebirth.