My second time to Ouwehands Dierenpark to see the pandas! After a few days at Pairi Daiza, we took an evening train back to Brussels, then caught the Eurostar to Amsterdam, and then a train to Utrecht for the final nights of our little European tour^ After a good nights rest we headed for Rhenen by train for a day at Ouwehands Dierenpark – this is the second visit for both my mum and I and we were excited to see baby Lang Yue^ We visited first in February 2019, and sadly missed out on seeing first-born cub Fan Xing 梵星 due to the travel regulations for the time she was still in The Netherlands, luckily I’ve seen her since in China, but I didn’t want to miss on seeing Lang Yue as a little one. Overall no changes to the panda area here, but Wu Wen‘s yard has been made suitable for a youngster, with a wall blocking off the upper area of the inside space. Onto the pandas:
Xing Ya 星雅
Papa Xing Ya 星雅 – what a sweet guy^ He had access to the outdoor yard all day, but didn’t head out, and actually he didn’t come into the indoor viewing from the back den until around lunchtime, so it took a few hours of stopping by his windows to check if he was there. He mostly choose positions that were tricky to photograph, so I was crouched on the ground to get an angle where he was positioned well in the shot! Luckily he did move around a bit, but spent a good hour or so enjoying his bamboo before heading up onto one of his platforms for a long afternoon nap – gotta love a starfished panda XD And caught him drooling as well! He seems super chilled out and laid back and one day I hope I’ll see him enjoying the outdoor yard because it’s a lovely one.
Wu Wen 武雯 + Lang Yue 朗月
Now mama Wu Wen 武雯 and second Dutch-born cub Lang Yue 朗月 who is also a female – for a while when we arrived we could only see Lang Yue, she was sitting in the doorway to one of the back dens, then after maybe an hour or so Wu Wen eventually came out to see what Lang Yue was doing and catch up on some bamboo! These two were quite tricky to photograph, they mostly hung out by the wall below the tall viewing windows, so the only spot was the smaller side windows, and then you were at the mercy of the sun and the reflections on the glass – it was quite limiting but I think I did get some good ones eventually. Once Wu Wen had wandered out once, she was wandering around quite a bit, going out and in from the back den, checking on Lang Yue and having bamboo. Lang Yue was mostly just in the doorway for the day, so I think we got her on a quiet day, but at least it meant we could still see her – we got lucky later in the afternoon when she was feeling a little adventurous and came out for some climbing! Initially Wu Wen didn’t bother with this, but the second time she climbed up the rocky structure, mum headed over to pull her off! Some very sweet interactions that were definitely a highlight of the day.
