The final pandas to share about from the Outer Ring houses are Su Lin 苏琳 and her cubs! I didn’t realise at the time, but Su Lin was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2005, the third cub to be born there – so special to see another San Diego-born panda! She moved to China in 2010 and is now 19 years old and an experienced mother. I didn’t really see too much of her – she was sticking to the shadows and enjoying some bamboo while the cubs weren’t looking for her attention^ These two were super sweet and very much were tree-babies – I went past several times during the day and there was always at least one up a tree and the second was either also in a tree, or climbing up/down the tree too!

Next up from the Outer Ring houses, and our first mum with cubs, it’s Rui Rui 蕊蕊! Now I didn’t see a lot of mum Rui Rui, she was inside initially while a keeper was out with the cubs, then later I did see her out in her doorway having a good rest – and quite right too with two babies to take care of! Rui Rui is 7 years old, I couldn’t find any information about her online, but what I did find out when I was there that these are not twins with her. The girl cub is her biological baby, she spent the whole day up a very tall tree – an independent girl! The cub who was more up for playing and wanting attention is a male, who Rui Rui is the surrogate mother for. He was absolutely adorable – when I first went to the yard the keeper was playing with him and trying to entice him onto the little rocking horse. He did eventually sit on it alone for about a minute, then quickly chased after the keeper as she tried to get inside! Honestly so so so cute, one of the best moments^

I couldn’t pick a favourite moment from my trip to Wolong Shenshuping because honestly there were so many good ones – but Bao Li would be in the running for highlight of the day! Next up to share is Bao Li 宝力 – where to even begin about him?! Well he must have been a recent addition to this enclosure, because the name sign was of a different panda, but everyone seemed to know it was him. He was firstly famous for being the son of Bao Bao 宝宝, being born in 2021, and known on social media for being super adorable and playful. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a panda as active as Bao Li! Just a week after I was home from this trip, Bao Li was announced as the new male panda to be travelling for a 10-year stay at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC, his mum’s birthplace. How special! I was just so thrilled to have seen him and the panda fans in DC are in for such a treat – I only saw him on one day and he was playing to the public and just being an all-round sweet boy. He’s also super adorable, very distinctive and photogenic.

He was very popular when I was there, likely because he was so active – you can see in the video I posted to Instagram, so playful and cute^ This was quite near the start of the day, just after 9:30AM, and he was running around and making a great attempt to demolish trees for at least 15-20 minutes. I went back later and he was still full of energy, having a good explore and trying to get up another tree. Honestly the plastic barriers weren’t a deterrent at all, he just took them in his stride to get into the tree (hope the DC trees are ready for him!). I can’t wait to see him grow up, hopefully he retains some of his energetic and playful nature as he becomes an adult, and I can’t wait to travel to DC to see him again hopefully very soon^

The next panda I saw a lot of was Ya Xing 雅星 who was living in Outer Ring House 3. He is a 9 year old male who looks strong and active. I can’t see any information about him online, other than that his mother is Qian Qian 芊芊 who was born in 2006 (and has a few other cubs, so he has siblings!). The first time I went to his yard he was sitting eating with his back to everyone (being an Edinburgh Zoo local, only seeing a panda eating from behind was a very typical experience!), but after 5 or so minutes he picked up a big stalk of bamboo and carried it down to his little pool to eat it while sitting in the pool! Later on when I went back to him, he was having a really good wander around his whole yard, doing some scent marking and going in the pool again. A really nice panda experience =)