I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 378: Headmaster, Is the Panda Your Relative?

"Mom, did you mix up the red panda with the giant panda? They are not the same..."

Though Tang Xiaoxin said this, she couldn’t wait to sit down next to Mother Tang.

Mother Tang retorted, "You really underestimate your mom. Could I make such a mistake? You’re so smart; how could your mom be foolish? It’s definitely a giant panda. Plus, whenever you come back from the zoo, you always educate us, don’t you?"

When Tang Xiaoxin saw the picture of the giant panda in the article, she got so excited she wanted to jump up: "Wow, it really is a giant panda! So cute!"

She was itching inside, wishing she could dash to the zoo right now to see the pandas!

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Unfortunately, her phone had been taken away, otherwise, she would tell Qian Keke the good news right this moment.

Mother Tang saw right through her thoughts: "Heh, if you want to see the pandas, study hard. The pandas aren’t on display yet. Look here, it says in about one to two weeks, just in time after your exams.

If you don’t do well, you won’t be allowed to go play at the zoo. Instead, I’ll have to sign you up for tutoring classes!"

Tang Xiaoxin immediately responded with a whine, "Eh~ Mom, that’s so harsh, isn’t it?"

Actually, Mother Tang was just trying to scare her a bit. No matter what the results were, if the child wanted to see the pandas, she’d have to let her go. Otherwise, imagine how upset she’d be.

Plus, she wanted to see the pandas herself!

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However, it was true that if the exam results were bad, she would enroll her in tutoring classes.

When the time came, they would go together with Father Tang, the whole family.

Recently, Father Tang had been working overtime again, busy fixing bugs for a product launch, and returning home very late. Once that was over, it would be good for him to have a nice break.

"Off you go to study well!"

"Mmm!" Tang Xiaoxin’s eyes shone with determination.

"For the pandas, I’ll give it my all!"

...

After the giant pandas settled in, the veterinarian team conducted a physical examination on them. The preliminary results showed that they were quite healthy, which was to be expected since they were carefully taken care of every day at the base.

The results of some more detailed tests would be available in a couple of days.

In the morning, Fang Ye visited the backstage area of the giant panda exhibit to check on the pandas.

"Crack, crack."

The crisp sound echoed.

Just arriving, he saw Zhuangzhuang leaning against a wall, leisurely eating bamboo.

Pandas spend about half their day feeding and the other half sleeping.

Guan Shan was chatting with an animal keeper. Seeing Fang Ye come over, they greeted him: "Hello, Director!"

"How are the pandas doing?"

Guan Shan said, "After eating bamboo in the morning, Zhuangzhuang has a strong curiosity for new things. He walks around the animal shed, touches the tree trunks, and climbs up the perches. Then he just spaces out, sticking out his tongue. Cloud is curled up in a corner, not showing much interest in eating either."

Inside the shed, there was a simple one-meter-tall tree structure for the pandas to climb on, to alleviate the boredom of an empty space.

Fang Ye stroked his chin: "Still a bit stereotyped, huh?"

But it was normal to have some repetitive patterns in the confinement of an animal shed with a monotonous environment.

Once the quarantine was over and they were in the spacious outdoor environment with lots of new things to explore, they wouldn’t stare blankly or curl up in corners anymore.

Guan Shan continued worriedly: "We, the keepers, are trying to build a rapport with the pandas. When feeding them the formulated pellets, we call their names, but Zhuangzhuang and Cloud hardly pay any attention. They won’t eat from our hands; they only eat when we put the food down and move away.

Little Gu almost got bitten by Zhuangzhuang during feeding time."

Besides eating bamboo, the coarser diet, giant pandas also need to be fed formulated pellets and juicy feed, like apples, carrots, special steamed buns, bamboo shoots, and such, which are of course tastier than bamboo, and better for building a bond.

The formulated feed is given in small quantities throughout the day, interspersed with bamboo, to ensure balanced nutrition while making the pandas’ meals more appetizing.

Linhai Zoo has devised a feeding schedule for the pandas, giving them six servings of formulated feed throughout the day at 8, 9, and 10 a.m., and at 2, 3, and 4 p.m.

The animal keeper was just calling with a bucket of feed, but couldn’t get a response for the longest time.

Giant pandas at the Panda Base are trained from a young age; they’re usually very well-behaved when having their blood drawn or being weighed.

But after arriving here, they became extremely uncooperative and even displayed aggressive behavior.

Fang Ye chuckled and said, "Here, let me give it a try."

Taking a food bowl filled with apples and carrots from the animal keeper’s hand, he called out, "Zhuangzhuang!"

The affable skill activated!

Zhuangzhuang actually found the smell of the apples very tempting, but with a change to a stranger for a keeper, it was in a bad mood.

It sat in the corner, munching on bamboo and sulking.

Though angry, it still had to eat.

Sniffing around, it suddenly caught a familiar scent that made it feel at ease.

After hesitating a moment, it put down the bamboo and waddled slowly toward the fence.

Guan Shan and the animal keeper were utterly dumbfounded: !!!!!? ???

How come it wouldn’t come when we called, but you just say the word, and it’s here? Do you have some kind of family connection with pandas?

"Hey there, good Zhuangzhuang!"

With a beaming smile, Fang Ye reached through the bars to pet Zhuangzhuang, and held out a piece of apple to its mouth.

Zhuangzhuang’s little eyes fixed on Fang Ye, conveying a look of gentle friendliness as it leisurely nibbled on the apple.

It had seen Fang Ye a few times in the past few days and, for some reason, out of all the bipedal creatures, it felt closest to him.

Fang Ye reached in and patted Zhuangzhuang’s head, then gently rubbed its black ears.

Although pandas look like plushies and seem fluffy, their fur is surprisingly rough compared to how soft and smooth one might expect.

However, the fur on places like the cheeks and ears did feel very nice to the touch.

Seeing that Zhuangzhuang didn’t mind at all, in fact seemed to enjoy it, Guan Shan was as envious as if she had eaten a lemon.

The ears of a giant panda look so soft!

But she was only in charge of general management and wasn’t privileged to touch them.

Only veterinarians and animal keepers are allowed contact; even the zoo director isn’t permitted. Of course, Fang Ye could.

Though animal keepers needed to pet them to improve their relationship and facilitate training, right now they weren’t confident enough to do so because it could be dangerous.

After petting the panda for a while, Fang Ye waved his hand, "You guys go out first, I need some alone time with Zhuangzhuang to build our rapport."

"Oh!"

Although a bit perplexed, they both exited the area.

Building rapport was actually just a pretext.

Fang Ye wanted to be alone with the panda mainly to find an opportunity to feed it the Protective Potion.

[Protective Potion]: Once taken by an animal, it permanently enhances the animal’s healing and immunity against diseases.

"Canine distemper" is a common infectious disease among dogs and cats and is also the number one killer of giant pandas, with a 90% mortality rate upon infection.

Although humans can’t contract canine distemper, after coming into contact with infected animals they may carry the virus and transmit it to giant pandas.

And since giant pandas are generally not vaccinated—because the effects of vaccines on them are still under review—prevention mainly relies on regular monitoring, deworming medication, feces checks, and proper disinfection and isolation.

So, if you want to be a giant panda keeper, you can’t have pets at home.

After so many prize draws, Fang Ye had accumulated some Protective Potions, which were just right for the unvaccinated pandas.

Fang Ye estimated that three doses of the potion would suffice for one panda.