Jia Jia enjoys her food in south China's Hong Kong, July 28, 2015. (File photo: Xinhua/Lyu Xiaowei)
It's breakfast time! Hong Kong Ocean Park's female giant panda Jia Jia moved slowly from its den to an area resembling its natural habitat to enjoy its meal. Visitors got ready with their cameras to snap this leisure moment of the oldest captive panda in the world.
Old giant pandas are vulnerable to seasonal health problems in summer. As Hong Kong's temperature started to climb on Tuesday, when the first Very Hot Weather Warning of this year was issued, Ocean Park's animal care team is paying extra attention to the pandas to make sure that they are staying well.
Dressed in a green work suit and wearing a headset, Elke Wu, the park's Terrestrial Life Sciences Senior Supervisor, keeps close contact with the back office to monitor the pandas' condition.
"Jia Jia's turning 38, which equals more than 100 for humans. It is obviously slow in movement, but its condition is considered satisfactory at this old age," Wu said in a recent interview with Xinhua, introducing the daily life of the four giant pandas in Hong Kong, whose hometown is Sichuan, a southwest province of China.
"Actually An An and Jia Jia show up every day, though for a short while," Wu said, old pandas prefer staying in their dens for some rests because of their declining physical strength. So, panda fans have to keep their fingers crossed for a glimpse of the pair.
The average life span of captive pandas is 25 to 30 years. Born in 1978, Jia Jia achieved two Guinness World Records titles last year as being the oldest panda ever in captivity and the oldest panda living in captivity, while 30-year-old An An became the world's second oldest male panda under human care.
Apart from An An and Jia Jia, the central government also presented Ying Ying and Le Le, a younger pair of pandas, to Hong Kong in celebration for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the special administrative region. The two pairs moved in to Ocean Park in 1999 and 2007 respectively, and nearly 43 million people had visited them as of April 2016.
It is rare for one park to keep four pandas at the same time. Ocean Park has become experienced in taking care of pandas, especially old ones.
Jia Jia has been suffering from geriatric diseases including high blood pressure, arthritis and cataracts in both eyes; lens dislocation of its right eye was found earlier, which could lead to permanent blindness. Also a senior, An An has similar health issues and needs to undergo checkups regularly such as blood pressure measurement, blood sampling and X-ray scanning.
Getting a panda involve in a health procedure is not a piece of cake, Wu said daily training is they key.
"You have to go through a series of training with the panda before you can make it voluntarily stretch out its arm for blood sampling or fix its head on the X-ray machine," Wu said, adding that a keeper needs to build a relationship with the panda in the first place and it takes time.
After receiving treatment, Jia Jia's lens has been back into position, but the disease is prone to relapse. She has to do eye pressure test every week and apply eye drops every day, which are new experiences to the panda, as well as to the park.
"We have got the world's two oldest panda here, we can share our experiences with experts from other places," Wu said, adding ophthalmology in pandas is a brand new area and the park can make contribution to it.
On completing her studies in zoology overseas, Wu came back to Hong Kong and joined Ocean Park and her very first duty was keeping pandas. Not only has she gained much experience in taking care of the animal, but also she is familiar with the habits and characters of the four.
"Jia Jia is the most elegant one, you can tell from its eating manners," Wu told the reporter that unlike its fellow pandas, Jia Jia is always clean and tidy and never gives the cleaning team a hard time.
As for the other three, especially Ying Ying and Le Le, they tend to throw bamboos leaves everywhere when eating and mess up the places, Wu said, gesturing the pandas' behavior, when Le Le was giving a demonstration from behind.
The panda care team is consisted of around 10 people, who spare no effort in keeping the four pandas in a good shape, and nurturing public awareness of wildlife conservation. Over 120,000 students had joined panda--related educational activities organized by the park from 2005 to April 2016.
Wu has been working for the park for nine years, and has participated in keeping different kinds of animals such as birds and sloths, and now mainly pandas. When asked about her favorite among the national treasures, Wu said, all are her beloved, though more attention is given to Jia Jia.
Speaking of her expectation towards the younger pair, Wu hoped they can give birth to babies, yet she will not give them too much pressure and let it take its course.
Ying Ying and Le Le, turning 11 this August, have completed their sixth mating season in April, when they tried natural mating but failed. The park did artificial insemination on Ying Ying twice, and signs will appear as early as late July if it becomes pregnant.
