He Helped Create the First Panda Team

Submitted by Michelle C. of Virginia

"My father, Larry Collins, was the first head keeper in charge of Ling Ling and Hsing-Hsing. He helped create the first panda team and learned all he could about giant pandas. He wrote a book about them and him and his keepers were drawn into a children's storybook about them. By the time I was born he was working as head mammalogist at the Conservation Center in Front Royal, Virginia. But I still grew up leaning a lot about the giant pandas. Now, I'm a teacher who loves to pass on my crazy knowledge of animals."

Image courtesy of Michelle C.