Zoos ensure food supplies and provide extra care for animals

The latest COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai has disrupted many aspects of daily life, including food supplies.

It isn't just local residents who are trying to get their necessities through group purchases or government handouts, even the creatures at Shanghai Wild Animal Park in Pudong New Area are facing a similar issue.

How to keep a sustainable supply of fresh bamboo－about 30 kilograms per day－to satisfy the demand of the five giant pandas living there has become a major job for the park administrators.

Before the recent outbreak, the park bought bamboo shoots from the breeding and research base for pandas in Sichuan province, every week. This was no longer possible from April after the lockdown as air freight was affected, according to Yu Jinhua, head of the park's giant panda enclosure.

"We weren't sure how many days the lockdown would last, so we quickly adjusted our bamboo supply plan. Our goal was to increase the stock to ensure that the pandas have enough food to eat during the lockdown," he says, adding that during the outbreak the park procured 500 kg of bamboo each time.

"That would last our pandas about two weeks. This time around, we coordinated with transportation authorities and increased the amount of bamboo shoots we get each time while reducing the frequency of buying them," he says.