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Animal Encounters #1: Giant Panda in Ouwehands

Updated: May 31, 2022


It was june 25, 2021 - the second summer during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. Rules and regulations were were less restricted, as had happened before with the long summer holidays looming ahead.


We had planned to visit Ouwehands Dierenpark Rhenen 6 months before, but another lockdown was instated. Zoos were forced to close again, and stay close for 5 months. The longest period of time.



Our window to see the first Giant Panda born in the Netherlands as a cub, had dwindled. We would now see him for the first time as he'd already celebrated his 1st birthday. Seeing as how he was the first ever Giant Panda we'd see, we were afraid he would be all grown up already and could not be called a cub any longer.


Chances were, we'd not even see him properly. That's the risk of being an animal photographer, whether you're a zoo or nature photographers: there are no guarantees.


Giant Pandas are a crowd favorite, and the young Fan Xing is the darling of the public. You can understand we were not the only visitors hoping to see him.


The only zoo in the Netherlands with Giant Pandas in its collection, the habitat is always crawling with people. It's a large structure, with a lot of viewing angles as you can walk around and even above it. Some are better than others - but this is speaking mostly from a photographer's point of view, as you'd rather not take photos while looking down upon an animal.



We were incredibly lucky to see Fan Xing a few times - playing indoors with his mother (not photographable) and also playing outside by himself.


Fan Xing is a single cub, and has no siblings. Hence his only play-mate is his mother. At a year old, he's getting too big and strong - and too much of a handful - Wu Wen doesn't much care about engaging in play-time anymore.


Fan Xing had discovered climbing before, and during our visit he discovered the tallest tree in his habitat. Of course, he had to climb it. New adventure awaited after all. It wasn't as easy going, I think, as his earlier adventures climbing trees. This tree did not have leaves, but did have a lot of (loose) tree bark that would fell away as he scrabbled for purpose.


But he managed, and he was happy as any little cub can be sitting comfortably in his tree.



Getting down, was perhaps just as adventurous. Going down the right way seemed rather troublesome and the many visitors watching - even zoo keepers had gathered to keep a close eye - oohed and aahed every time we feared he'd make a tumble.


It truly seemed as if he would not succeed without a fall, but he did. As a reward, almost, he joined his mother Wu Wen for a well-deserved snack.



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