108 people dressed in Panda costumes descended upon Trafalgar Square on Wednesday to call attention to the plight of the bears, like this panda cub in Sichuan. Photo credit: Rick Weiss, http://flic.kr/p/9Cg1tZ
Be aware: There are pandas. And they’re doing tai chi in Trafalgar Square.
As part of Panda Awareness Week, 108 people in slightly soggy panda costumes descended on the London landmark to perform a coordinated tai chi dance, before moving on – via Tube – to other London tourist sites. The black, white and furry crew ending up having tea in a bamboo hut in Covent Garden.
Panda Awareness Week, 2 July through 7 July, is meant to call attention to the plight of pandas worldwide; the slow-moving, bamboo-munching bears are among the world’s most endangered species, threatened by habitat loss. Only around 1,600 pandas currently live in the wild, though efforts to raise pandas in captivity are increasingly successful. The Week is being organised by Chengdu Panda Base, a breeding and research center for giant pandas in Chengdu, capital of China’s Sichuan Province. The 108 costumed bears represent the 108 real bears currently living at the center.
Whether or not it’s working quite the way its organisers intended remains to be seen: One commenter, posting at a forum on Digital Spy, mused, “So what are we supposed to do for Panda Awareness Week? Eat garbage, crap all over the place and not have sex? That’s a real game changer for me.”
The news version:
The long version:
More on pandas
- China sends giant pandas to Scotland: It’s panda-monium!
- Never say no to Panda
