A panda at a breeding center in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, is kept in an air-conditioned room to shield it from hot outdoor temperatures. Photo: Zhao Yusha/GT

Baby pandas at a breeding center in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, are kept in an air-conditioned rooms to shield them from hot outdoor temperatures. Photo: Zhao Yusha/GT

A breeding center in China's Sichuan Province has found a way to keep panda bears content during the hot summer months.

Summertime attracts countless tourists from all over the world to Chengdu to see the city's top attraction.

However, just like people, "hot temperatures have a certain impact on the pandas' appetite and mood," Deng Tao, a breeder at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, told the Global Times.

Deng said that the most important thing is to move pandas inside enclosures equipped with an air conditioning system if the outside temperature exceeds 25 C. "We provide greater amounts of fresh and juicy bamboo shoots to the pandas in summer," Deng said.

The breeders also give the pandas ice cubes. "Apart from cooling them off, ice cubes can also make pandas fluffier, so the pandas love ice cubes," Deng added. 

And the pandas also enjoy fresh fruits and water to help them cool off.

While June, July and August are the months when pandas usually give birth, Deng said they are prepared to take care of the mother pandas, especially from the heat. "We give mother pandas specially made soup and porridge. It's easy for them to digest during summer and it will help them recover more quickly after giving birth," Deng noted.

Cao Cao, a giant panda at the Hetaoping semi-wild training base, is in good health after giving birth to the first giant panda cub of a mother in captivity and a father in the wild on July 31, according to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

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