| They grow up so fast! It's hard to believe, but Hong Kong's beloved panda babies are turning one on Aug. 15. Jia Jia and De De have been stars since the moment they were born, not just attracting a stampede of visitors to Ocean Park, but also becoming a key component of the government's economic plans. We talked to Matt Leung, one of a handful of people in charge of the pair, to find out what it's like to be around the star cubs every day. —Adrian Wong  Leung, De De (center) and Jia Jia (bottom). Source: Hong Kong Ocean Park What's your typical day like? We start around 8 a.m. to clean up, prepare the food and the bamboo leaves for the pandas. The cubs spend the night with their mom, so we also need to build up a relationship with the adult pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, through positive reinforcement training. In the morning, we ask her to shift to another den so we can weigh the cubs. We feed them formula twice a day. After their morning bottle, we just let them out to explore their habitat and play around. During the day, we also open the gate for the cubs to reunite with their mom so they can spend a day together, interacting with each other. At this stage, at the age of one, they will explore around their habitat by climbing trees and walking around. They also imitate their mom Ying Ying by munching or chewing the bamboo leaves beside her. They will spend time napping on a tree. At the end of the day, we get them back into the den so we can feed them. Can you describe the personalities of the cubs? De De is more playful and he interacts more with his mom, his sister and the caretakers. He likes to explore new things and play around. Then he will spend a long time sleeping on a tree. Jia Jia is more laid back. She prefers "me time" and to just stay in her own personal space. She will also interact with her brother, her mom and us, but a portion of the time, she just prefers to be in her own bubble.  We time. Photographer: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Is there anything about your job you wish people knew more about? Visitors want to see the fun side of the animals. But we also try to educate them on what we do, like how we build a relationship with our animals through positive reinforcement training. These trainings are very helpful and very important for us to get to know the animals and their health condition. We can use the training to ask them to voluntarily participate in getting their blood sample or an X-ray. Of course, we're not starting with the cubs at this stage, they're still kids. But for the adult pandas as well as other animals in Ocean Park, we basically use the same concept of reinforcement. A lot of people get a different appreciation for what we do when they find out that we cared for geriatric pandas who passed away, the milestones that we established with An An and Jia Jia, what we learned about them. When pandas get old they will have high blood pressure or conditions like arthritis. Has anything surprised you about raising baby pandas? The most surprising thing to me is that Ying Ying gave birth at the age of 19! She's the oldest known panda to give birth for the first time. The age of 19 equals to 57 in human years. We were worried, we weren't sure if she could nurse the cubs because it's her first time and she's kind of old for a panda. But surprisingly, she showed a very strong instinct to care for the cubs. At this stage, the cubs are out in the habitat with her. She will guide them to explore different areas in the habitat. When the cubs climb up, she's always nearby, watching them on how they explore. She's a great mom. Do you have any tips on visiting, especially for first timers who are coming to Hong Kong to see the panda cubs? We definitely will see the most action between when the park opens at 10 a.m. and noon. But they're still growing and they have so much energy, so in the afternoon, once they wake up, they will just play around again. You should come in the morning time. Besides the cubs, that's when you can also see their dad, Le Le, on the other side of the habitat eating breakfast. For more on global panda conservation efforts, click here to watch a conversation with the Smithsonian National Zoo's Brandie Smith. | 
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