Li Li the panda has found an unusual place to take her daily naps – in the branches of a tree. The giant panda, who lives in a zoo in Hangzhou, China, has a favourite place in her pen, and it is where she can be found on a sunny day like this. According to zoo keepers, Li-Li often practices this kind of ‘sleeping kung fu’ in the branches, China News Service reports.
The giant panda climbs up into the tree and sprawls herself over the branches, leaving her limbs dangling above ground as she sleeps. The rare and iconic Giant panda bears have become a symbol for China and its government reaps the benefits from it through engaging in ‘panda diplomacy’.The endangered bears are used as diplomatic gifts to other countries where China rent out the animals to foreign zoos. Only around 1,600 remain in the wild in China, with some 300 others in captivity.
The animals are notoriously difficult to breed, often lacking a sex drive, and sometimes accidentally crushing small cubs shortly after birth, leading to falling numbers in the wild.
Giant pandas are solitary bears when in the wild, usually preferring their own company when foraging in Chinese bamboo forests. They also depend on bamboo forests for their sole food source, which have been decimated by human deforestation. As a result pandas must eat 23 to 36lb (12 to 15 kg) of bamboo each day which takes them an astonishing 12 hours, meaning they are particularly vulnerable if food starts to disappear. In captivity, giant pandas also enjoy being fed honey, eggs, fish, yams, leaves, oranges, bananas and other special treats.
