The final mum with a cub to share from the Star Nursery House – Miao Miao and her 2024-born male cub Jin Rui 金瑞! I only saw this duo on the second day of my visit, living in the yard that I saw Xiu Qui and her cub the previous day. Earlier in the day it was very similar to Xiu Qiu and her cub – Miao Miao was sitting almost in the same spot and enjoying bamboo while cub Jin Rui was up on the platform, hidden behind the tree. A large school group went past and completely missed seeing him! But I waited a while and patience paid off because not long after the cub found some energy and climbed out between the fork in the tree looking a bit sleepy still with a bit of ‘bed head’ fur – too cute^ I love this little cub’s fur, it looks super fluffy. When I went back later in the afternoon it was back to nap time for baby, but Miao Miao was in position at the front with fresh bamboo and I got some lovely photos of her, especially the last one in the post, such a beautiful round fuzzy face =)

Miao Miao has a number of siblings on both her parents sides, but notably she is sister with Yuan Run, another firm favourite recognisable panda of the trip too, and actually as a cub she was raised alongside Yuan Run by her mum Yuan Yuan. Despite being only 12.5 years old, she is quite an experienced mother, having had cubs in 2018, 2020 and now this one in 2024. One of her 2020-born twins, Jin Xi, has also become the new male living at Zoo Madrid.