I first saw the baby panda when she was only 10 days old. She looked like a white mouse. We called her Xi Wang. It means “hope”.
When Xi Wang was born, she weighed just 100 grams. At four month old, she weighed about ten kilograms and she started to go outside her home for the first time. Eight months later, she was not a small baby any more. She grew into a healthy young giant panda and weighed 35 kilograms.
At the very beginning, Xi Wang drank her mother’s milk for up to 14 hours a day. When she was six months old, she started to eat bamboo shoots and leaves. When Xi Wang was 20 months old, she had to look after herself because her mother had another baby.
Sadly, it is very difficult for pandas to survive in the wild, usually because of people. Here are some of the problems that Xi Wang may have in the future if she lives in the wild.
If hunters catch a giant panda, they will kill it for its fur. If farmers cut down trees and forests, giant pandas will have nowhere to live.
Mothers often leave baby pandas for two whole days on their own. If people find baby pandas alone, they will often take them away. They think that the baby pandas need help.
Giant pandas are in danger now. What can we do? We can take the following actions to protect giant pandas:
● make giant panda reserves bigger
● build more reserves
● encourage farmers to leave the giant panda reserves
If we do nothing, soon there will be no giant pandas in the world!