Our first wild Panda
 

We got our first wild Panda this last weekend - okay it was a Red Panda - but that's still a Panda - so, at the moment, we're feeling pretty-proud of ourselves.
To see pics of our animal go to my blog at -
http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/20...ing-panda.html

We found the Panda at the Laba He forest park (4 hours outside Chengdu)- the place I've already written about in another thread.

We hiked around the park - but you can also hire a Jeep and driver if you feel less energetic - they can drive you to the animal viewing platforms. Of course you'll be lucky to see any type of Panda (although in the winter Giant Pandas come down to feed at lower elevation - but see one is very difficult), but other animals like Samba Deer, Short Tailed Macaques (these are monkeys) and Takin (something that looks like a cross between buffalo and goat) are quite easy to find.

Cool! Very lucky for you and I hope the baby red panda is lucky as well.

Well done

WOw! It looks about the size of a fox. Could you tell about how old it was?

This was a mature Red Panda - so it must have been over 2 years old - the age at which they can breed. Pandas can live to 15 years old but average lifespan is 8-10.
As for size - its a bit smaller than a Red Fox.
Red Pandas are very rare - in Sichuan we have the world's largest population that was estimated in 1998 to be 6000-7000 - but today must be far fewer.

Heres some more pics from our Red Panda day - this time they show some of the country, what you can find in the park and a couple of those monkeys
http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/20...red-panda.html