On a snow-blanketed field in Virginia, workers are 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 will soon stuff up to 700 bamboo stalks onto a pickup truck to be driven down to the Smithsonian's National Zoo to feed, among others, its newly arrived pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, who landed in the US from China in October as part of a decade-long breeding and research agreement. "We're in the process of getting to know our two new pandas. They're in the process of getting to know their habitat and sort of routine," Mike Maslanka, head of nutrition for the zoo, tells AFP. "On a daily basis, these animals are getting 45 kilos of bamboo each per day. And that's not an inconsequential amount." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES