And of course, I saw plenty of Tian Tian in November as well – she spent more time inside than outside, but she did take a few wanders outside the door (and then came back in within a minute every time haha). She really looked super relaxed and happy for her final month in Scotland. I think she knew what was going on and was definitely showing off for the crowds. I was very pleased to see her come out to see the public on the final day of indoor viewing – the media definitely got some lovely clips of her inside. Overall, I was so happy to have some great last visits with her and I got some great pictures!
November 2023 – the last month that the giant pandas in Edinburgh could be guaranteed to be seen at the zoo*! Of course I visited a couple of times to make sure I was soaking in all the time with my favourite pandas that I could – and here are some of my pictures of Yang Guang. Even though it was chilly, and did try to snow this month, on my visits I would say he spent an equal amount of time inside and outside. With condensation on the inside of the glass it was tricky to get many indoor pictures of him, but I got many good photos of him outside, so definitely no complaints from me there! It was great to see so many people coming to say good bye and spend some last moments in Edinburgh with Yang Guang.
*The pandas were announced to be leaving in December 2023, but the indoor viewing area would be closed to the public to allow staff to make the necessary preparations. The pandas were given free access outside, but it couldn’t be guaranteed that they would go outside, so visitors may/may not have been able to see them until their departure. The pandas left Edinburgh Zoo on the 4th of December 2023, 12 years to the day after arriving.
While I did get to the zoo in September, I only managed 1 visit as I was away for over 2 weeks, and sadly I didn’t get a huge number of great pictures – so onto October! Tian Tian spent my whole visit in her basket at the back wall of her indoor enclosure, so I didn’t get many clear pictures of her; luckily Yang Guang was front and centre and spent a lot of time outside enjoying his bamboo! He picked a great spot to lean against facing the crowd – it was pretty good weather and there was still some sun to be had =)
In June 2023 I finally made it to Zoo Madrid to tick off the final pandas in Europe – I have now visited all 9* of the European panda zoos! I can’t believe it! This was a solo trip, and actually my second solo trip to Spain as I’ve been to Barcelona before. I planned one day at the zoo on my trip and found that this was enough to see everything, including spending several hours at the panda enclosure. Zoo Madrid is one of the oldest zoos in the world, and has also had pandas since the 1970’s. Breeding has been very successful, with several cubs born to the current pair on loan to the zoo – at the time of my visit (and the time of writing) 3 of the cubs are still living there, giving the zoo a total of 5 pandas. Luckily I saw them all on my trip!
The zoo opens at 11AM and I got there shortly after opening – it was mid-week in early June, so there weren’t a huge number of visitors or tourists, and were quite a number of school groups. While they could be quite loud and meant there were a lot of people at the panda viewing spots, the groups never really stayed long, so there were still plenty of opportunities to get the best viewing spot. The zoo stays open later, until 8PM in the Summer, I didn’t stay that late as most of the animals seemed to be headed to their indoor spaces with less to see from around 6PM, so I left between 6 and 7PM and it seemed that most of the other visitors had also left by that time as well. It was a pretty hot day as well, so I took a break for lunch in the mid-afternoon around the time the pandas were all inside as well, so I didn’t miss too much of the action.
This family of pandas have lived at Zoo Madrid since 2007, and in 2018 a 5-year extension was granted. Since then there hasn’t been anything in the media about the pandas returning to China, so it could be that the pandas are due to return soon, although this may have been delayed due to the pandemic and the delayed return of a number of other pandas.
*This 9 includes Edinburgh Zoo who had pandas until December 2023, and does not include the pandas at Moscow Zoo.
