Holding a couple of stalks of bamboo, Barb Campbell is right in her element in the new Panda Passage area at the Calgary Zoo.
“Do you want to touch it?” she asks a group of pre-schoolers. “That’s the inside part that the panda eats. And they like to eat the leaves.”
Campbell is one of four zookeepers who’ll be taking care of the pandas while they’re in Calgary.
“This is so cool,” she said. “It’s great to see people come and see something so very different that they’re not used to.”
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Campbell is enjoying the chance to get used to them all over again.
She was a keeper when pandas came to the Calgary Zoo in 1988, and while she was working with other animals at the time, she spent as much time as she could checking out the star attractions.
“I have this awesome photo of me with the pandas…it was back in the day, 30 years ago,” Campbell said. “I had that massive, curled, permed hair, and you look at that and go, ‘Oh my goodness!’”
She’s now thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the panda team for the current visit.
“This is such a treat,” Campbell said. “It’s a privilege to be here for the next five years. I get to retire on this, so for me, that’s why this is such a cool thing. I’ve come full circle.”
Watching the pandas spend hours each day munching on bamboo and then dozing while they digest it, Campbell says maybe we could learn something from them.
“They know how to chill.”
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