Crate, food and language: Preparing Le Le for his move to China

Since Le Le was first introduced to his customised crate on Nov 27, panda keepers have been conditioning him to enter the metal container with food rewards.

This is to encourage him to go into the crate voluntarily and get used to it.

In his fifth and latest session of conditioning, he even fell asleep in the crate for 40 minutes before exiting, assistant curator Trisha Tay at Mandai Wildlife Group said on Dec 13.

During these sessions, which usually lasted about 30 minutes each, keepers ensured that he was comfortable staying inside the crate.

This crate will be used to take the two-year-old panda to Chengdu, China, on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight in January 2024.

“I think he’s quite comfortable with the process, and we are quite confident that he will do well in this whole transition period,” Ms Tay told the media. 

Le Le made his last public appearance at River Wonders on Dec 13, a day before he begins a 4½-week quarantine, before he goes on the plane.

Ms Tay is one of the staff members who will accompany Le Le to China to help with his transition.

Training him to get used to the crate not only eliminates the need to sedate him for the flight but also minimises the stress for both the panda cub and his keepers on the day of the flight, Ms Sim Pei Ying, a senior keeper at Mandai Wildlife Group, told The Straits Times. 

Flight to China

On Jan 16, 2024, Le Le will embark on a 4½-hour flight on a Boeing 747-400F freighter aircraft, which will leave Changi Airport at 7.15pm for Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. 

Before he leaves, Le Le will undergo health checks, including sampling his blood to screen for diseases and chest radiographs to rule out signs of a tuberculosis infection, and making sure he is in top shape for the journey.

Captain Nithaar Zain, chief pilot of the plane, said he was “really excited” to transport Le Le – his first giant panda passenger.

While he will ensure that the loading and unloading of the panda cub go smoothly before and after the flight, Capt Nithaar said the most challenging part of the flight is to avoid turbulence.

“When you’re a passenger and a turbulence is coming, pilots will advise you to put on your seatbelt. But for livestock, they have no idea and might feel a bit uncomfortable or nervous, so we really try to avoid turbulence as far as possible,” Capt Nithaar told ST.

He has flown the freighter for 15 years and transported live animals like horses, cows and sheep.

To maximise comfort for the VIP (Very Important Panda), Capt Nithaar said he will check all weather reports and speak with air traffic controllers for information on turbulence.

He added that the flight crew will ensure the landing is as smooth as possible so that Le Le’s ears do not pop.

While Le Le may not have a cabin crew attending to him, he will be joined by Ms Tay, as well as a veterinarian from Mandai Wildlife Group and a keeper from China, on his maiden voyage. 

They will monitor him and make sure that he is comfortable and calm during the flight.

His custom-made crate measures 1.7m long, 1.1m wide and 1.3m high and took two weeks to build. It comes with a removable plywood board at each end to facilitate meal times and checks when needed. 

The ambient cabin temperature will be maintained between 15 deg C and 16 deg C, similar to the temperature of Le Le’s habitat at River Wonders’ Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest. 

His in-flight meal includes up to 50kg of some of his favourite food like bamboo, bamboo shoots, apples, carrots and pellets. 

Upon his arrival in the Chengdu at about 11.30pm, Le Le will be transported to a quarantine facility in Huaying, in Guang’an City in Sichuan Province. 

Ms Tay said: “Our team will be there for a couple of days to help ensure he settles in well, and take the opportunity to further brief our China colleagues on the care routine for Le Le.” 

Besides the care routine, Ms Tay and her colleagues will tell their Chinese counterparts about Le Le’s favourite activities, his health and medical history, as well as the commands they use on him.  

Adapting to changes

Le Le will have to get used to eating wowotou - a cake-like feed made of corn, rice and soya beans used to feed captive pandas in China. 

Shaped into cakes and steamed for four hours, wowotou has the texture of a dense huat kueh (a traditional Chinese steamed rice cake) and tastes like tofu. It is a much-needed source of protein for captive pandas. Chinese panda keepers told ST in 2021 that returning pandas are known to take some time to get used to eating it.

In case he does not get used to wowotou, Le Le will still have a week’s supply of pellets from Singapore to fall back on. 

A 2016 report described how a pair of giant panda twins born in the United States caught up with local dialects and adapted to local delicacies in their new home in China’s Sichuan province when they first returned. 

At first, they could respond with only a confused look when hearing their names called out in the Sichuan dialect but would respond to English orders immediately, according to the pandas’ breeder. 

The pandas also preferred “Western fast food” instead of wowotou.

While Le Le is used to English commands, Ms Tay told ST that language will not likely be a huge hurdle for him. 

This is because animals recognise food rewards more than the language used for cues, she said. 

Furthermore, staff from Singapore will use hand signals, which the Chinese keepers can also follow, while speaking Mandarin to help him with the change in language.

“Prior to their move to Singapore, Kai Kai and Jia Jia were also accustomed to prompts in Mandarin, but now, we use English with them,” said Ms Tay, referring to Le Le’s parents.

Le Le is the first and only panda cub born in Singapore after Kai Kai and Jia Jia arrived here in 2012 on loan from China. It took them seven attempts to conceive the cub.

Under the terms of Chinese panda loan agreements, cubs born on foreign soil are generally returned to China when they turn two.