The final pandas to share about from the Dujiangyan Base – Rui Rui 蕊蕊 and her 2023-born cub Zi Rui 紫蕊 and her surrogate 2023-born cub Ao Ke 傲客. Ao Ke‘s mum is Xian Xian 贤贤, she is currently raising his twin Ao Ran 傲然 in one of the wild-training habitats, so Rui Rui seamlessly took over the care of her second twin and this adorable trio are now enjoying life in the Diequan Garden area of the Dujiangyan Base. I saw these three last year at Wolong Shenshuping and honestly loved watching them, and loved watching them again on this trip – and clearly most other visitors agreed as they were by far the most popular pandas.

The three of them were out pretty much all day, and there was just about always something going on to see – walking around, eating, playing separately, playing together, playing with bamboo, climbing the frames, climbing a tree, and even attempting to climb a tree with a plastic collar not intended for climbing! So much to see and so many cute photos^ When I got there, the cubs were hanging around the house while Rui Rui was walking in and out, and every so often she would pick a cub and give them some attention, then move on. She did make an attempt to stop the cubs trying to climb the plastic-covered trees, but they were very adamant that they wanted to try! Lots and lots of cute pictures. Loved getting to see one of the cubs, I’m assuming adventurous Zi Rui, taking a stick of bamboo and scaling a tree carefully with it and proudly getting to the ‘seat’ at the top. She looked delighted with herself^

They were very popular and I hope I get to see the trio again, or at least perhaps the cubs still living together.