Pandas’ thumbs astonish visitors
ON LOAN TO INDONESIA: HOLD THINGS LIKE HUMANS
They are small and far from other digits so they can hold bamboo tightly while they eat it.
The education kits installed in Indonesia’s giant panda exhibit have attracted visitors, particularly children, who were astonished at the form and anatomy of China’s iconic creature.
The kits are in the hallway leading to the clean and neatly-designed panda enclosures in Indonesia Safari Park, also known as Taman Safari Indonesia (TSI), which is in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java, about 71km south of Jakarta. The kits are intended to convey knowledge about pandas to visitors, as the animal is different from those found in Indonesia, as well as in the TSI’s animal collections.
The kits are comprised of information boards on pandas dietary needs, their behaviour in the wild and comparisons with other animals in the bear family.
A miniature set of panda research and medical care was also there. The kits conclude with a short movie that shows the pandas’ activity in the wild.
It is played in a theatre for the visitors before they enter the giant pandas’ indoor and outdoor enclosures.
Ardita Widianti, a veterinarian who supervises the health of the giant pandas in the safari park, said the education kits are attracting visitors.
She said the visitors often ask for more detailed explanations from the attendants related to information displayed on the boards.
She added that pandas’ thumbs are the piece of anatomy that the visitors are most curious about. “Mostly they don’t know that the panda has small thumbs, allowing it to hold tube-shaped bamboo tightly while they eat it. Because of its thumbs, pandas are capable of grasping things in the same way as humans,” she said.
The X-ray image of a panda’s small thumbs were displayed in the research and medical section next to a human’s. Pandas’ small thumbs are located far from its five claws. This means they can easily hold bamboo, Ardita said.
The giant panda couple, Cai Tao, the male, and Hu Chun, the female, arrived in Indonesia last September from Chengdu on a 10-year breeding loan agreement with the Chinese government. A team is monitoring the female panda’s behaviour for signs of estrus. If Hu Chun were to have a cub, it would be the first baby panda born in Indonesia.
“But the pandas’ mating season is difficult to predict as estrus period is brief. It’s not easy for them to breed,” the veterinarian said. – Xinhua