Will Travel For Pandas

March 23, 2026March 21, 2026 Kirsten

Snapshots from St Louis Zoo, Missouri November 2025

After a day visiting Omaha, I hopped on a quick flight to Saint Louis, Missouri ready for a week of conferencing – that was actually in the Saint Louis Zoo! The zoo is kitted out to host a range of events, including conferences so in all the breaks I headed out to explore what I could, and on our welcome day we even got a tour from some of the great volunteers and got to do some special activities^

Highlights definitely include seeing the cheetah cubs, feeding multiple giraffes and seeing a baby elephant who shares my birthday =D

March 9, 2026March 8, 2026 Kirsten

First time in the Midwest ~ Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Nebraska November 2025

I was headed to a conference in Saint Louis and had to make the most of the trip all the way there – so the weekend before the conference I headed to Omaha, Nebraska to check out the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium as it comes up on just about every single ‘top zoo in the USA’ list! No pandas of course, but still plenty to see and enough to easily fill a whole day of animal watching^

February 23, 2026February 21, 2026 Kirsten

Baby animal galore at Schönbrunn Zoo Vienna, October 2025

Had a great Autumnal weekend in Vienna and had plenty of time to see the whole of Schöbrunn Zoo across the two days. It was a very popular spot with many tourists visiting, in fact for sure this is the zoo that I’ve seen the most tourists in. Had great weather which meant almost all the animals were outside – makes for a good visit. It’s a large zoo so I definitely would have struggled to see everything in one day as well as dedicating a solid amount of time to the pandas, I think two days was pretty perfect!

February 16, 2026February 15, 2026 Kirsten

A brand new pair of P A N D A S @ S C H Ö N B R U N N Z O O V I E N N A October 2025

The Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria was the first European zoo that I saw pandas in after my home zoo of Edinburgh way back in 2017 (when the last born cubs there were just tiny lil babies^). In 2018 the twins left Vienna for China, and in 2023 mama Yang Yang and her new partner Yuan Yuan (who I didn’t see) left for their return to China. Finally in April 2025, a brand new pair of pandas moved to Vienna! As soon as I heard the news, I booked myself a trip – welcome to Lan Yun and He Feng 🎉

February 9, 2026February 7, 2026 Kirsten

Photo diary: Zoo Berlin, September 2025

With giving myself 2 days for panda viewing at Zoo Berlin, of course, there were some panda sleeping hours where I could go and see the rest of the animals – I’ve seen around the whole zoo a few times before on previous trips (this is my 5th time at the zoo!), so I didn’t take thorough pictures of the grounds or all the animals, but I think I had a pretty good viewing experience overall. Shortly before my visit baby capybara’s were born, they weren’t quite out exploring yet so I didn’t get to see them – but perhaps on my next visit they’ll still be little^

Highlights included: seeing the rhinos outside in their new space, watching the brown bears search for fruit and veg in their rather green pool (and having a blast while doing so), and discovering that there are actually two takins here because I’d only ever seen one before!