How We Started Our Love Of Pandas

/ Post by William and Karom Burke via Pandas International

Actually, we came to know about pandas quite accidentally. One day we were watching CNN and a reporter named Jeanne Moos was walking on the streets of NYC, carrying a stick of butter. We were wondering, “What’s going on?”  She stopped people and asked them, “Do you know that a baby panda was born at the Washington National Zoo and it’s the size or this stick of butter!” She went around asking several people and it was an enjoyable, heartwarming and most enlightening show. Little do we know that Tai Shan (image above) would start a new chapter of our lives.

To tell you the truth, in our case, the rest is history because at the end of her program she left a panda cam link and we clicked on it and we have been in love with pandas ever since.

Needless to say, not a day goes by that we do not look at panda cams, talk or read about this puzzling creature. We have traveled and volunteered to places that allow us. We spent 5 days at Chiang Mai Zoo as volunteers to work with the pandas as well as Bifengxia and Chengdu Panda Base. When opportunity comes, we plan our trips around pandas in captivity at various zoos around the world.

Last, but not least, thank you, Pandas International for being a gateway to the inside world of pandas. You have been marvelous!