By Wang Wei
China.org.cn staff reporter in Sichuan

On a visit to Bifengxia Base in Ya'an City, the reporter meets many foreign volunteers. Of various professions and from different countries, their presence adorns the trip.

"If I were a panda and they kept me, I would like to stay here."

Lisette Carcsen is a designer of enclosures for animals in captivity from LC. Gazebo in Denmark. Due to the requirements of a study, she came to Bifengxia base alone in early April and will leave here on May 1.

Lisette Carcsen, a designer of enclosures for animals in captivity from LC. Gazebo in Denmark, was interviewed by China.org.cn at Bifengxia Base in Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, on April 28, 2009. She has been working there as a volunteer since early April. [China.org.cn]

 

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For the past month she has been working as a volunteer to understand how the pandas live. "It's very important to know how animals live if you want to do design work for a zoo," she said, "and this place is very nice. Seriously, if I were a panda and they kept me, I would like to stay here."

"By Chinese standards, Bifengxia base is impressive, with a lot of space. Not all of the pandas can be accessed and seen by tourists. Some of the pandas are kept in places where they can be left alone."

Carcsen spoke to China.org.cn with great admiration. Her broad smile and excitement testified to her pleasant spell of volunteer work here.

"As a volunteer, you do start like an animal keeper. You do the same things – you call them, clean them in the morning, feed them like six times, and they also feed them at night of course, but that's not my responsibility. And then, once the animals know me, I will be able to do the job alone."

"You could see they did not know me when I arrived. In the beginning, one female would go away like this and eat the food I gave her at other place. But now, she will stay there and eat beside me," Carcsen smiled happily, imitating the panda with cute motions.

According to Carcsen, she applied for the volunteer work through a company from England. "It's not difficult to apply at all. Anyone can come, and it actually depends on money. There are various programs, like the program I went with, through which China invites people to come and to learn what a panda is like and how to work with the pandas."

"I should have gone to the Wolong nature reserve," she said with regret. "However, I was told that I could not go because after the earthquake things are not so great there."

Carcsen finished off by saying that she will talk to more friends about the base when she goes back to Denmark.