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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS: PANDAS AND PREPARATION 17th September 2007 We had an early training session this morning so that we could have the afternoon and evening off for ourselves. Nothing all that interesting went on at training, except the basic tune up practice for a big game. This may sound contradictory, but we thrive on routine and normalcy.
Despite the showers, it was again a hot one out there today, so we are all having to drink extra to replenish the fluids we lost at training. I do not sweat a great deal , but even I lost just over a kilo (2.2 lbs) in the one and a half hour session. That is a lot of water to drink. The first day we were here it was quite cool after the rain, but now the weather seems to be getting as hot as it was in Hangzhou.
We were fortunate to be able to spend the afternoon up at the Chengdu Panda research center. I have always wanted to see a real giant panda, so loved spending time out there, especially as there we so many cute, baby pandas. The lady leading our tour told us that there have been 9 births at the center already this year and that has tied the record. They even have two more pregnant females, so they are hoping to break the record some time soon.
The tour was really interesting from may aspects. I learned a great deal. For example the giant panda species is over 8 million years old and the panda used to be a carnivore. Somewhere along the way they adapted, and became veggies. It may not have been a good move for the pandas though, seeing as they eat about 40 kilos of bamboo a day, and they actually are only able to digest about 2% of that. Because of this poor digestion, their productivity (and ability to procreate) is very poor as they need to sit around and be lazy all day in an effort to aid such things along.
Female Pandas can be pregnant from 80 to 180 days, which is weird. This wide disparity in time is made odder by the fact that the panda cubs they deliver are not yet fully developed. This evolutionary adaptation of the female panda was really very dumb. First, new panda mothers are not very good at the job and are often scared of their babies and fail to nurse them. On occasion they even start to bat them around and can often hurt them badly. In the wild the mothers give birth to one or two cubs, but they only ever feed one. When twins are born, one of them is cast off. All of this to say that the mortality rate of these panda cubs is very high. Diana says that there is no wonder that these animals are endangered. Evolution screwed them over! After the Pandas tour we headed out for a dinner at a restaurant. It was great having food away from the hotel, but I have to mention the fact that the service left much to be desired. Poor Robyn ordered a basic cheese pizza and got it two hours later in a to-go-box. Wednesday is rapidly approaching and we know the task ahead. I am off to bed
RhianWilkinsonSoccer.com is the Official Website of Rhian Wilkinson.
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