Wanted: volunteers to get up close and personal with China's pandas
by Jane Macartney in Beijing from the TimesOnline
For anyone who dreams of getting up close and personal with a giant panda, now is your chance.
China’s main breeding station has issued a call for 30 volunteers from around the world to help to care for its pandas during the Chinese new year holidays when a flood of tourists is expected.
The temporary recruits to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, in Sichuan province, will be welcome to work with the pandas between February 14 — the first day of the Year of the Tiger — and February 28, which marks the end of the lunar new year festival.
However, the offer is not open to just anyone. The endangered panda a national treasure in China and must be carefully handled. Only about 1,600 pandas still survive in the wild in China. To be eligible, any would-be volunteer worker must be aged between 18 and 45 and have a college degree, the research base said. Fluent spoken English would also be considered a bonus.
One official at the base said that there were several reasons for the call for recruits. The base was forecasting a deluge of tourists over the new year holiday, he said, and “our own staff will be insufficient and we need more hands on deck. Plus, it’s a good opportunity to popularise knowledge about pandas and to draw more attention to their protection”.
Visitors to the base, home to about 45 giant pandas, usually have little chance to get too close to the cuddly, but sleepy, animals. They are usually to be glimpsed dozing in tree branches or inside their shelters. Even the babies are really only lively at feeding time. After a breakfast of carrots, apples and milk the toddlers roll about and play for a while before drifting off into corners to slumber.
The official said: “For many people, it will be a rare opportunity to be with the pandas and to take care of them. It will be a memorable experience.”
Recruits will have to pay their own way, making it likely that most will be tourists already travelling in China. The base will provide meals during working hours.
The duties will not be arduous. The official said: “The volunteers don’t need to have a huge knowledge of pandas. The most important thing is an animal-loving heart. We will give them basic training.”
However, becoming a volunteer does not guarantee a chance to cuddle a baby panda — a privilege for which visitors pay as much as 1,000 yuan (£90) for just five minutes of playtime.
The official added: “They will be given simple jobs, like distributing gifts to children and cleaning the panda enclosures.” It was not known if any recruit would win the coveted job of working with the cubs.
