pandering to the crowds they may not eat, I let them eat everything they could. Jia Jia loved eating apples and later got used to plum juice. Elder pandas are threatened by kidney problems, so it’s important to protect their teeth so that they can continue to eat bamboo, which is good for digestion.
Jia Jia in 2015
Jia Jia gave birth to six cubs in Wolong. At first we had difficulty with conducting X-Ray screening on her. Giants pandas need to hold their breath during X-Ray screening, but to use anaesthetics on Jia Jia would have been risky and it would have been tough for her to recover at her age. It took 60 days for Jia Jia to learn to hold her breath for three seconds without moving. In 2002, I was invited by the National Zoo in Washington, USA to share the technique of conducting blood pressure tests on pandas. I found that Westerners treat animals as friends whereas Asians often see them as inferiors due to cultural differences.
Jia Jia passed away last year at 38—about 114 years old in human terms. She was the oldest giant panda on earth under human care.
One must be passionate about animal care to be an animal worker. There is too much to learn in the animal world and the only way to connect with an animal is to understand their behaviour. It’s also important to have initiative and take on challenges, as one must face a lot of failures during the process. At times of failure, one must always evaluate the method of the enrichment instead of blaming the animal.
A giant panda consumes around 30kg of food per day, not limited to bamboo. Their day starts when we check their faeces to see if the food is right for their digestive system. They have exercise and training during the day. If you see a giant panda sleeping very well, it means they are eating well. We put fruit in different areas so that they can keep busy searching for it.
Spending my life with animals for 39 years, I am deeply touched by their vitality and have learned to respect life. I can see that Hong Kong people are becoming more concerned about animal rights. What we can do is to share the techniques of animal keeping in international seminars so that everyone can work towards better living conditions for them.
A giant panda in Washington National Zoo died after eating too many muffins, which inspired me to diversify the eating habits of An An and Jia Jia. Barring that which the vet said
I am 62 now and not ready to retire. After some years, I plan to go to Mainland China to apply what I have learned about training wild animals like Snub-nosed monkeys.
Ying Ying in 2007
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