The Starry Sky Pavilion in the Panda Forest Area was definitely a highlight of my 2024 trip, and this time it was a fantastic spot for good panda viewing! Last time there were only pandas inside, this time I saw pandas both inside (although only in one space of the three) and outside – the outdoor yards here are pretty huge and are again quite varied, and viewing is pretty good, none of the yards are through glass although if the pandas are sitting near the building, then from the outdoor viewing path they are quite far away. There are 3 indoor spaces and 6 outdoor yards here – I saw a total of 10 pandas, so if you want to see a lot in one place, this is a good bet to go with! First up, the solo pandas I saw in this pavillion:
Da Mao 大毛
First up I spotted Da Mao 大毛 – so happy to see him, I thought I had missed him on my last trip, but turns out I did see him, the sign just hadn’t been switched from the previous panda XD So second time to see Da Mao who spent 2013 to 2020 living in Canada, now slowly ticking off the Canadian pandas from my ‘seen’ list after having also spotted one of the Canadian-born twins, Jia Yue Yue at Chongqing Zoo on this trip too. In doing some research, I seemed to have missed previously that Da Mao isn’t the father of the Canadian-born twins, despite being the male there – the studbook suggests that there are two potential fathers, however neither is Da Mao. One of them is Da Mao‘s father (photos below!). This was a nice yard, not too big so easy to spot him, however a lot of plants, with plenty of spaces for hiding – there were also platforms and logs/trees to climb on and he made good use of those too and I got some nice photos. There was also a rocky area water fountain too which I like the look of in these new yards. With the design of the yards in this pavilion, they are sunken, so for most of them you are looking down into the pandas, and when they stand on raised platforms they are closer to eye level.
Xi Lan 喜兰
Happy to see Xi Lan 喜兰 again, I saw him living in this pavilion last year – he is a returned panda born in Zoo Atlanta in 2008 and has been living here since 2014. This time however, I got to see him outside. His yard is a nice one with a lot of plant coverage, it was quite tricky to get photos sometimes as he was almost completely concealed by bushes! But it’s a nice yard, I like the stream running through it and there are both rocky and wooden platforms to climb on – he made use of both of these and that allowed for the best pictures. I was able to see him out on both days of my visit, and on both days I caught him enjoying his bamboo.
Xiong Bang 雄浜
Next up is Xiong Bang 雄浜, who I think might be the oldest panda I’ve seen at the base, and extra specially, he is the first panda to be born overseas and to have returned to China. Xiong Bang was born in Adventure World, Japan in 2001 and he moved to China in 2004 – at the time of my visit he was 23.5 years old. He was the start of a very successful lineage of cubs at Adventure World, and he has had breeding success himself being able to breed naturally. He is the father of Da Mao, who also lives in this pavilion and I saw earlier, potentially the father of Jia Pan Pan and Jia Yue Yue (born in Canada), and a number of other pandas born at Chengdu Base. He was very popular with a number of Japanese visitors standing by his yard the whole time I was there too! He was mostly just interested in his bamboo^ His yard is a nice one, it’s on the end, so you can view from multiple angles, it’s a long L shape so plenty of space for the panda here to explore. Again this yard has a stream running downhill and some different climbing options – this is definitely one of my more preferred yards, mostly for the space.
Wen Wen 文文
Then we have Wen Wen 文文, who was Xiong Bang‘s neighbour and the two were very cute sitting getting their bamboo at the same time on opposite sides of the wall! Being born in 2016, I likely saw Wen Wen in the nursery that year but I don’t think I’ve seen him on my recent visits. There isn’t much information about him online, but I did see that he was friends with Mei Lan/Rou Rou when they were young cubs in the nursery together. Being 8 years old now, he is perhaps going to start being considered to take part in the breeding programme.
Jin Shuang 金双
The final panda from the Starry Sky Pavilion is Jin Shuang 金双 – a 4.5 year old female. Her mum is Miao Miao who I already saw in the Star Nursery, and her twin brother now is living at Zoo Madrid! Despite the sign saying she has a lively character, I saw a lot of Jin Shuang sleeping! She slept outside on a platform every time I went past her on the first day of my visit, luckily on the second day I managed to see her awake and eating. She has a cute face and looks quite round and fluffy^ Again, she’s not a panda that there’s much information online about, however I hope to see her again more active next time and also hope to see her twin brother in Madrid too.
