A panda mom at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding has shown us something pretty special – moms all over the world act a lot alike when it comes to their kids.
Mom’s Love Is Universal
This place in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, is more than just for science; it also shows us the sweet moments in the lives of these animals.
People all over the internet fell in love with the scene of a young panda named Cheng Lan getting out of his cage.
Little Panda on the Loose
The center workers kept busy with their work, but Cheng Lan’s mom, Cheng Da, watched her baby closely.
Even though she was stuck behind the bars of her pen, she paid close attention to her cub, showing she was worried about him.
Pandas spend lots of time eating bamboo to stay healthy, but right then, Cheng Da cared more about her cub than food.
Hungry Giants
The giant panda loves bamboo and needs a lot of it to live. They eat for half their day and go to the bathroom quite a bit.
A grown panda needs about 28 pounds of bamboo every day, and its wrist bones allow it to grab the bamboo easily. Sometimes, it also eats birds or rodents.
Alone But Caring
Giant pandas usually like to be alone. They have a strong sense of smell to stay away from other pandas or to find a mate in the spring.
The mothers have one or two babies, but they can only take care of one. Baby pandas are tiny and blind when they’re born, and they start to crawl after three months.
They start out white and get their black and white colors as they grow.
Safe in Mom’s Paws Again
As if she understood that the panda’s mom was worried, a staff member came and picked up Cheng Lan. She brought him back to the pen and pushed him back inside to his mom.
More Pandas For The Future
Thanks to people working hard to save them, there are now more wild pandas. Many more live in special centers and zoos, where people love to see them.
But pandas in the wild are still hard to find, which makes this sweet story of Cheng Da and her baby Cheng Lan even more special.
Seeing the mom and cub together again was a heartwarming reminder that all animal moms care for their young in much the same way, no matter what kind of animal they are.
