Jen Adams (L) and Nate Pauli, animal keepers in the Department of Nutritional Science load harvested bamboo to feed the giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, into a truck at an agricultural area of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, January 23, 2025. On a snow-blanketed field in Virginia, a handful of workers were silent but for the groan of a chainsaw chopping through bamboo - a delicacy for their furry clients 70 miles away in the US capital of Washington.
The team, bundled up for the cold, will soon stuff up to 700 bamboo stalks onto a pickup truck to be driven down a three-lane highway to the Smithsonian's National Zoo to feed, among others, its newly arrived pandas. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)