The next mum with twins living in the Kindergarten area is Ran Ran 冉冉 and her male-female twins, who are now named Long Ye 龙野 (M) and Feng Ye 凤野 (F). The ‘Ye‘ in the cubs name means that the cubs’ father is a wild panda – meaning these two have important genetics to add to the captive pool. I saw this trio last year in this same yard and was so excited to see them still living there this year on my visit. I really like this yard for viewing because there are two different options so you do get all the angles, which was perfect and meant I got a lot of pictures! I got there pretty early in the morning and Ran Ran was out with one cub initially and they were both eating, not long after the second cub came outside and it was a constant rotation between the 3 on who was where and who was out and in. The cubs were quite independent and were happy to spend their day by themselves without relying on mum – they only really bothered her when they wanted the same cane of bamboo that she was already eating! I didn’t really see these guys sleeping much, it was always exploring or eating, and highlights included seeing one of the cubs super quickly scale a very tall tree in the yard, and then as soon as they were up they scooted right back down again, so cute! These cubs are particularly photogenic, I then all photos of them look good and I also got some really nice ones of Ran Ran on her own too, she is also very cute looking.

The first mother and cubs I saw in the Kindergarten were Wang Jia 汪佳 and her 2023-born female cubs, who have now been named Jia Yu 佳雨 and Jia Xue 佳雪. When I was there I was somehow thinking these were the pandas I had seen in this yard last year, but I actually saw these twins in Wolong and a different trio of pandas here. While I did see them sleeping at one point, this was a very active family and all three of them were loving the bamboo^ One of the cubs was most keen on eating while the other was a little more adventurous, walking around and climbing up on the rock structure – this is a really nice yard with different terrain options but these three stuck mostly on the flat area at the front viewing and the rocky structure that sits down there (of course, this is the section where the bamboo was placed at!). The cubs were super cute interacting together, there were some adorable little ‘fights’ for the final few bamboo shoots, but also lots of playing with mum Wang Jia as well.

Next we are onto the Kindergarten area of the base – which was named for when it used to be the kindergarten for all the youngsters, now it’s more of a mixed area. There are some mums with cubs here, but there are also a number of other pandas too. Here there are 5 yards, which held a total of 12 pandas when I was there, first up we’ll see the pairs of pandas who’re not mothers with cubs:

So I will admit, that spending a lot of time waiting and watching Bao Di and Bao Mei, it didn’t leave a lot of time for seeing all the other pandas at the base, so the rest of the pandas living in the White Bear Ground were a little neglected with my time – however these guys are in a prime position by being on the main path in and out of the base, so everyone has to go past at least twice! This is a prime viewing spot for the Summer months because there is a long covered viewing walkway with seats as well, perfect for keeping in the shade. There are 4 yards here, I saw pandas in them all, but only very briefly saw De Rui so only had one photo, but I did get a few of the other pandas living here – across the 4 yards there were 7 pandas in total here.