Giant Panda Hua Bao a.k.a. Pyry

We went to see Pandas today! It was two hours drive to Ähtäri. There are three areas in Ähtäri Zoo: Panda House, Zoo and Farm.

Two giant pandas, female Jin Baobao and male Hua Bao arrived to Finland in January 2018. They were renamed as Lumi (=snow) and Pyry (=snowfall). No insurance company agreed to give insurance for them, so the state of Finland agreed to pay China 2 million euros if the pandas had died in flight.

China leased pandas to Finland for 15 years, and that will cost to Ähtäri Zoo 14 million euros. A grown up panda eats 12 kg bambu every day. The Zoo imports bambu from Netherlands and that costs 100 000 euros per year. There has been some plans to start growing bambu in Ähtäri. Anyway, the Zoo now has financial difficulties.

But the pandas! They are so cute! First Emma and I went to see pandas and we walked the short Zoo route, meanwhile hubby had a walk with Peetu, then hubby went in with Emma, and I was outside with Peetu. 
Lumi was in sleep, but Pyry was active, and soon he sat down and started to eat. Another charming animals I saw was a Red Panda. At the same time it was kind of sad to see caged animals.

Before driving to home, we went to Keskinen Brothers department store in Tuuri, Alavus. The store is a tourist attraction as well as a regular department store, in fact the largest in Finland, even though is located in countryside.


+22,6 °C, sunny