It’s actually a member of the racoon family …
Posted on Tuesday 20th April 2010
… and not a bear. But pandas are still called bears. Strange; but then Paddington was also a bear and he was just a work of fiction, so anything is possible.
Moving past the cryptic intro, I took the excuse of having the family in town to finally get round to seeing Wang Wang and Funi, the most expensive loaners in history. Not only did it take a great deal of negotiation relying on Kevin Rudd’s fluency in Mandarin, but also a complete rebuild of the Adelaide Zoo to get them.
Regardless, they are the only pandas in the Southern Hemisphere, so I thought it would be worth seeing them while the opportunity presented itself.
Lo, the pictorial evidence of our visit:
The remainder are here, and if anyone is interested I have a more complete collection in hi-res available.
Never knew they were related to racoons, I learn some thing new every day!
O
xx
Aw, very cool!
Hope your folks are enjoying their extended visit, Miles is due to be giging in both New Zealand and Australia…when he can leave British airspace, that is…