Yang Yang and Long Hui, the two giant pandas at Schönbrunn zoo in Vienna, have reached an age where chewing bamboo is getting difficult. Using its modern technology, ANDRITZ is preparing raw bamboo to meet the needs of these special customers. Having begun in 2019, this collaboration between Schönbrunn zoo and technology group ANDRITZ has now been renewed.
ANDRITZ machines process many different types of fibers in pulp and paper mills all over the world. In 2019, Schönbrunn zoo reached out to ANDRITZ with an unusual request: prepare raw bamboo so that the zoo’s elderly couple of pandas would be able to eat it without difficulty. ANDRITZ was happy to accept this challenge. Eveline Dungl, curator and animal trainer at Schönbrunn zoo, says: “The way ANDRITZ dealt with this unusual request was exceptionally kind and professional.”
“We use the grinding and dispersing equipment at our Fiber R&D Center in Graz to prepare the panda feed so that it does not hurt the pandas’ gums,” explains Denis Jozic, Technology Manager at ANDRITZ. “The pandas seem to like our special menu.” In fact, they like it so much that cooperation has continued, and the zoo has placed orders for specially prepared bamboo reaching well into the future.
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“It always puts a smile on our faces at the R&D center when we see the van from the zoo delivering the raw bamboo,” says Fiber R&D Center Global Director Laura Liukkonen. “We generally receive a delivery of 500 kilos of bamboo, which we then manually feed into our conveyor. Everybody at the center lends a hand as we feed the bamboo through the disperser twice. We can certainly take on any task when it comes to refining raw materials, especially for such important customers as the giant pandas!”
Yang Yang and Long Hui have lived at Schönbrunn zoo since 2003. They have given birth to five babies, which were sent back to China to help the population of threatened wild pandas grow again. This year, Schönbrunn zoo is celebrating 20 years of cooperation with the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Society. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, Schönbrunn zoo is the world’s oldest zoo and has been named Europe’s best zoo six times in a row.
