The Star Giant Panda Nursery House is the second house open in the Panda Forest Area – there are 4 indoor enclosures and 8 outdoor yards, so plenty of pandas to potentially see here! There are also nursery facilities, so this is an area birth and cub-rearing. When I was there I didn’t see any mums with cubs, but I did see some 2023-born cubs which I was very happy about, and of course also some adult pandas, all in the indoor enclosures. In this house the inside is set up with shops and a small cafe, with a very large and spacious area to view the indoor enclosures which are set out very separately – this gives plenty of viewing space which will be great on crowded days. When I was there it was pretty quiet, there were lots of other people viewing the pandas, but I had no problems getting a good spot to see the pandas. The indoor enclosures here are all build into the ground, so you are looking down on the pandas into their indoor spaces to see them through glass – this is quite different to all the other houses at the base, but comparable to the indoor enclosure at Ouwehands Dierenpark for example.
Jing Jing
Jing Jing 晶晶 is a 19-year old female, living in an interesting indoor space – it’s set up as a seated viewing gallery in a semi-circle around the window. While Jing Jing was only sleeping when I visited, plenty of people were enjoying a place inside to sit down and relax, which is a nice option to have. Because of the sunken nature of the enclosure, from sitting, you don’t really get a view of the panda, actually when I was there I was the only one that I saw going up to the window to see the panda. She has been successful in the breeding programme over a few years, having had cubs in at least 2015 and 2017.
Xiu Qiu
Xiu Qiu 绣球 was in the central-most enclosure in the house – you can view this one from all around, and you can also see in the below photo that there is a large roof window letting light into the space. Xiu Qiu was born in 2016, making her almost 8 years old on my visit. She had her first cub in 2021, You You, who I saw at the Wolong Shenshuping Base, and her mother is Shui Xiu who I saw at the Wolong Shenshuping Base, which is interesting as this highlights that she is a CCRCGP panda yet is living at the Chengdu Base – she was part of an exchange between the two bodies, the aim will to be to make the most optimal mating matches and to help with diversity in the captive genetic pool. This enclosure is very nice, with plenty of trees, a climbing frame and also a pool, and Xiu Qui was making use of all of her options. And while writing this post I discovered that she had a cub last year, so she was pregnant at this time – lots of cute photos and videos of her and her cub coming out, so I’m excited to try and see this pair on my next visit^
Ai Li
Ai Li 艾莉 is a 13-year old female and the final adult/solo panda I saw in the Star Giant Panda Nursery House. This enclosure had windows on 3 sides so plenty of viewing opportunities, although I found it pretty quiet here even when she was sitting in a prime position and enjoying her bamboo shoots! As a youngster she spent some time at the Changzhou Yancheng Wild Animal World, but since returned to be a part of the breeding programme. Between 2018 and 2022 she birthed a total of 5 cubs – her most recent twins born in 2022 are Ai Si and Ai Lun who I posted about who still live at the base – as she was living here, perhaps she also gave birth in 2024, but I’ve not been able to find any information about that. On the first day of my visit she spent her time sleeping and eating, on the second day I saw her moving around some, walking into her pool and up onto one of the platforms, I think it’s a pretty nice space that she has.
2023-born cubs
And of course the final pandas to share about in the Star Giant Panda Nursery are some cubs! I saw two cubs together living here who were born in 2023 – I don’t have any info about who they are or which mother(s) they belong to, but they were lovely to watch. And it also wasn’t too crowded here, at one time there were maybe 20 or so others watching them too, but there was plenty of space at the windows and at other times there were only a few other people watching them. Much much quieter than the Sun or Moon Nurseries in the original part of the park. I did find the lighting tricky in this enclosure, the cubs were only on one platform which was in a darker area away from the roof windows, so it was difficult to get good lighting for photos.
