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02:25
Tian Bao has been spending his summer like many others in Europe by relaxing and keeping well fed. But for the four-year-old giant panda at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium, his snack of choice is fresh bamboo and plenty of it.
The average adult bear can eat up to 50 kilograms of the tree-like grass every day. Short canes, skinny canes, leafy bits, panda keeper Yang Liu says Tian Bao eats it all.
"Tian Bao is the best, easy boy," she laughed as the panda munched in the background. "We have almost 35 different varieties of bamboo and he can eat almost all of them, every one. His mother is more difficult."
Pandas are notoriously fussy eaters, enjoying one variety one day, only to leave it to waste the next.
"Nobody has figured out why they like one species of bamboo and not the other one," said Tim Bouts, the zoological director at Pairi Daiza. "Even within a species, they'll smell one cane and not touch the other one. If we knew why it would be a lot easier."
Pandas are well known for being fussy eaters but zoos in Belgium have been stocked up with bamboo during lockdown. /CGTN
Due to pandas' pickiness, zoos are forced to order heaps more bamboo than will ever be consumed. This is normally not a problem, but with deliveries being delayed across the continent, it became a major concern during the coronavirus pandemic with bamboo accounting for 99 percent of a panda's diet.
"When coronavirus hit, I think many zoos were panicking," said Bouts.
It wasn't that bamboo suddenly became scarce, but rather, the planes transporting it were grounded. Bamboo supply chains were in disarray.
In May, the Calgary Zoo in Canada was forced to return its two giant pandas, Er Shun and Da Mao, to China after months of disruption "destroyed" the bamboo supply lines.
"This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but the health and wellbeing of the animals we love and care for always comes first," Calgary Zoo President Clément Lanthier said at the time.
Bouts said European zoos were spared a similar fate because a lot of bamboo is grown in Europe and freight lines remained open, even at the peak of the pandemic.
A fortuitous acquisition left Pairi Daiza particularly well stocked.A year ago, it bought a bamboo plantation in France. Every week, 1,000 kilograms of fresh bamboo is delivered for the zoo's five pandas. Whatever they don't eat goes to the other animals.
It has kept pandered Tian Bao happy as he continues to indulge.
