A PLASTIC SURGEON'S RANDOM BRAIN WAVES: MY ACCIDENTAL ENCOUNTER WITH GIANT PANDAS

Giant pandas are some of the most beloved animals to walk this earth. They are often seen in movies, advertisements, and coloring books. Adults and children alike own giant panda stuffed toys and rush to the panda exhibit whenever they visit a zoo. However, despite their popularity, giant pandas are incredibly endangered. Though they belong to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99% of its diet. Giant pandas in the wild occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food

My first encounter with these animals was purely accidental. So let me tell you the story.

We, a group of friends from the U.S, Canada, U.K and India planned a trip to Kailash and Mansarovar in September 2016. On September 16, 2016 we all reached Kathmandu. From Kathmandu we were to fly by a Sichuan Airlines commercial flight to Lhasa and then after acclimatizing in the higher altitude of Lhasa for two days we would proceed by road to Mansarovar. This route was much longer but we were thrilled with the prospect of staying two days in Lhasa as we wondered if we will ever be able to visit this city at a later date as it is not easy to obtain a visa for the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Our plane left at around 2PM and it was a 1 hour 50 minutes flight to Lhasa. Lunch was served and consumed in no time and we were ready to land in Lhasa…………but something was not going right. We had been flying for more than two and a half hours and the flight had been quite turbulent and still there were no landing announcements! Suddenly the captain’s voice boomed in the public address system and he said something in Chinese which was followed by a huge cheer from the plane full of people. His subsequent announcement in English however was a huge disappointment to us – the climate in Lhasa was not conducive for safe landing and so the plane was going straight to its next destination Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan province and the hub of Sichuan Airlines. No wonder the Chengdu passengers were all thrilled, they would reach early!

We landed in Chengdu at around 7 PM. A bus transported us to a luxurious hotel- Haotian Guotai Hotel where we were treated to a delicious multi course Sichuan dinner. That was the good part, the bad part was that we were stranded till 4PM the next day! We had in Chengdu airport seen a large signboard saying ‘Welcome to Chengdu – the Giant Panda capital of the World’ and this was our chance to see some pandas. We expressed our desire to Lepka, our tour guide, and he arranged for a bus for all of us next day to visit Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

The giant panda is a rare and beloved animal that only inhabits the six major mountain ranges in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces of China. With a population of less than 2000, the species is included on the endangered list by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and is protected by China’s Wildlife Protective Law as the special-class protected animal. In order to rescue and protect the endangered giant panda species, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was established in March 1987 with the mission to further the research and conservation carried out by the Chengdu Zoo. The Base’s geographic location and excellent technological and professional resources allow it to carry out the ex-situ (off-site) conservation efforts and to improve the artificial reproduction procedures to increase the giant panda population. Ours was a very well organized visit and with battery operated vehicles we had the privilege of viewing many pandas in their natural habitat as well as baby pandas in their nursery. This set up was involved in preservation of endangered wildlife, integrating scientific research and breeding of giant pandas, conservation education, tourism education, and panda cultural events. If you want to know about this centre please visit their official website: http://www.panda.org.cn/english/about/about/2013-09-11/2416.html

With lots of English leaflets and notice boards and a bunch of helpful guides trying best to converse in English our knowledge about this rare and elusive animal was augmented that day. So what did we learn about pandas that day?

1. The lifespan of pandas in the wild is approximately 20 years. However, in captivity, they can live to be 25-30 years old.

2. The giant panda has been on the endangered species list since 1990. The most significant threat to them are poaching and habitat destruction.

3. Pandas have always been a symbol of peace in China. For example, centuries ago, warring tribes would raise a flag with a panda on it to stop a battle or call a truce.

4. With just over 1,864 left in the world, giant pandas are vulnerable, if not on the brink of extinction. Scientists are hoping to increase the wild panda population to 5,000 by 2025.

5. Pandas can stand upright, but their short hind legs aren’t strong enough to support their hefty bodies. A panda’s bones are twice as heavy as the bones of other animals the same size.

6. Pandas cannot run fast – a slow trot is as fast as they go. (The fastest bear is the black bear, which can run at 35 miles per hour, which is just as fast as a horse or deer).

7. Female pandas ovulate once a year. They are fertile only two or three days of the year.

8. Mother pandas in captivity give birth to twins more often than mother pandas in the wild do.

9. More than half of newborn pandas die from diseases or from being accidentally crushed by their mother.

10. It takes five years for a female cub to become an adult and seven years for a male cub to do so.

11. Pandas have plantigrade feet, meaning their entire foot touches the ground when walking, which is similar to the way other bears, humans, and rodents walk. Other animals, such as cats, dogs, and horses walk with their weight on their toes.

12. Panda fur is worth $60,000-100,000 on the black market. This is a curse for the species.

13. Although a giant panda’s fur looks silky and soft, it’s actually quite thick and wiry. The hair of an adult panda can grow up to 4 inches (10 cm) long.

14. Under its fur, the skin of a giant panda is black where its fur is black, and pink where its fur is white.

15. Panda researchers have counted 11 different panda calls – and four of them are used only when searching for a mate.

16. Pandas have been on Earth from two to three million years.

17. A panda spends 14-16 hours a day eating bamboo.

18. A giant panda has 6 fingers and can peel and eat a bamboo shoot in about 40 seconds flat.

19. A panda’s throat has a special lining to protect it from bamboo splinters.

20. Giant pandas have a very good sense of smell. Even at night, they can find the best bamboo stalks by scent.

21. Giant pandas have evolved a unique thumb, which allows them to hold bamboo. This thumb is actually a modified wrist bone.

22. Most of the food that a giant panda eats is not digested. In the spring, an adult giant panda can produce about 28 kg of droppings in 24 hours.

23. Female giant pandas are in heat once a year for only two to three days each time, usually in March to May each year. In the wild, female giant pandas will emit special sounds such as baa, dog bark, or cow bark during their fertile period, while male giant pandas will leave scent markers as a sign to attract female giant pandas. The gestation period for pandas varies from 97-163 days. This wide range is due to delayed implantation, which means that after a giant panda has become pregnant, the cub will only start to grow if the mother gets enough food. Once the cub has started to develop, it will take about 45-60 days before it’s born.

24. It’s very rare to see more than one panda at a time in the wild. They cannot afford to use energy competing with others for territory, food, and mates.

25. Adult pandas are so large that they don’t actually have any natural enemies. However, snow leopards will prey on vulnerable panda cubs or old and sick adult pandas.

26. Keeping a single panda in a zoo is expensive. A panda costs five times more to keep than the next most expensive animal, an elephant.

27. Giant pandas have been the symbol of the international conservation organization WWF, or the World Wide Fund for Nature, since it was founded in 1961.

28. Giant pandas don’t hibernate as their bamboo diet doesn’t allow them to build up enough fat reserves for the winter.

29. Pandas have sometimes been seen rolling down hills. While they might just be playing, they might also be trying to dislodge twigs from their fur.

30. Giant pandas have 41 teeth. Like humans, they have two sets of teeth in their lifetime.

31. Pandas are loners and they even abandon one baby if the mother has twins.

32. Pandas can swim too.

33. A newborn panda cub weighs only 100 grams (3.5 oz). They are fur-less, pink, and blind. Their iconic black and white color coat grows after about three weeks. Pandas are usually born in August and so we were lucky to see many cubs in the nursery.

34. Pandas are not afraid of the cold. Even in temperatures as low as -4°C (25°F), they can still be found walking in groves of bamboo with thick snow.

35. There are Sichuan giant pandas and Qinling giant pandas. Qinling pandas make up only 18.5 percent of the total giant panda population. The soil, climate, and vegetation of Sichuan are very different from that of the Qinling Mountains, so the appearance, colors, and body shape of the giant pandas in the two places are different.

Despite their exalted status and relative lack of natural predators, pandas are still at risk. Thanks to conservation efforts to save giant pandas, their population is now over 2,200. Their wild population has increased to 1,864, and the number of captive-bred giant pandas has reached 422. Therefore, their threat level has been reduced from "endangered" to "vulnerable".