Hanging out with the red pandas in Wellington

Some things are quite surreal. Having a small red panda crawl across your lap is one of those. I was at Wellington Zoo indulging in one of their Close-Up Encounters. There were only four of us and our Encounter guide who we met outside before being taken through locked gates into the enclosure area. These cute little pandas are endangered in the wild due to destruction of their habitats in the mountains of Nepal and Central China. The Wellington Zoo is home to three, a male Sundar, a female Khuis and their cub Ngima. They spend most of their time up trees resting and at first, we sat and waited and waited some more. It seemed our panda was more than happy in the tree and no amount of enticing fruit and vegetables could tempt him down.

The great thing about the encounter is that its totally up to the panda if they want to join you or not. Apart from showing them the tempting snacks there is no further enticing or force used. If the panda doesn’t want to say hi it’s tough.

We were able to sit around and chat with our guide who provided us with a wealth of knowledge about the red pandas at the zoo and the conservation work being done in general. He was also able to tell us about the characters of each of the pandas, which just like people is unique.

Eventually after peering up into the branches of the tree desperately pleading with my eyes for my panda to join me we gave up and moved to another area of the enclosure.

This time we were in luck. Manasa the oldest fellow in this block was more interested in tucking into grub than worrying about us. This game old guy has been with the zoo a long time and having been born in 2009 he was old now by Red Panda terms. This, however, didn’t stop him racing down from his tree to seek out our knees. He knew the game. Coming over and acting deliciously cute and getting a feed of panda favourites, apples, carrot and his least favourite kumara. He was deliberately picking out the kumara and leaving it too very last. Even pandas are picky with their food as they grow older it would seem!

As a group we sat on logs that made up a seating area and covered our knees with blankets to protect us from the sharp claws. Mamasa was happy to clamber up and crawl along between us all. We were told that we could very gently stroke his thick coat, just not his head that was strictly out of bounds. As I gently patted him as he ate from my hand I felt truly humbled and honoured at such a special encounter.

The encounter lasts about 30-40 minutes and is worth every moment. With the ticket you are able to visit the rest of the zoo which is a great way to spend a morning. There are several other animal encounters available to book, although our guide informed us that the red panda and meerkat encounters were the most popular, often booked months in advance.