A host of animals at the Yunnan Safari park in southwest China have been enjoying feasting upon some specially-prepared "zongzi", a traditional Chinese rice dumpling, to welcome the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival which falls on Thursday.

Among those to get their hands on the tasty treat was giant panda "Maozhu", named after a kind of bamboo, who is originally from the neighboring Sichuan Province but came to the safari in Kunming City in 2016.

This year, breeders at a safari made Maozhu a refreshing ice zongzi complete with fresh fruits, such as apples and waxberries, along with some mouthwatering juice and honey to celebrate the festival and satisfy his appetite.

"This is the first time Maozhu is having this kind of ice zongzi. This will give him a 'cool' and happy Dragon Boat Festival after coming to Kunming from Chengdu, thousands of miles away from his home," said Mao Duoyi, a breeder at the safari park.

There is a strong festive atmosphere in the park, with animals here eating zongzi and celebrating the festival in their own way. Other Safari residents such as giraffes, raccoons and ring-tailed lemurs also enjoyed their delicious tailor-made zongzi.

"Other than the giant pandas, we also are feeding giraffes, raccoons and ring-tailed lemurs zongzi. The giraffes had specially-made zongzi with mulberry leaves and carrots, the raccoons had sweet-and-salty flavored zongzi with apples and Wotou (a steamed cornmeal bread) and the ring-tailed lemurs had what we call a 'hardcore' zongzi with peanuts and red dates plugged in bananas," added Mao.