At the moment, seeing a panda in the fur isn’t so possible – luckily we can watch pandas live online with plenty of choice to choose from! I’m sharing my top live webcams for panda viewing today. It’s not an extensive list, but just the places I look to for my daily panda fix =)
iPanda
This is the place to be to view pandas in China – iPanda has a huge choice of cameras to pick from. You can see view pandas from either Chengdu or CCRCGP bases and you can choose specific age groups, or even specific pandas in some cases. The ‘cub cams’ are definitely one of the more popular choices!
The iPanda Facebook and Twitter pages are also popular, they upload new pictures and videos super regularly, there’s always new content popping up to enjoy, particularly of some of the fan favourite little cubs. The social media pages also share information on when new cubs are born.
Edinburgh Zoo
Of course I have to include my ‘home zoo’ of Edinburgh on this list – it’s my first go-to when I need to watch some panda cam, and I have the advantage of it being in my time zone, so I know it won’t be the middle of the night if I look during the day! Everyone can watch male Yang Guang, and members can also enjoy watching female Tian Tian on the members homepage. Panda updates are fan favourites, so there’s often something new on the Facebook or Twitter pages – at the moment a lot of the staff who are still working have been posting updates on a lot of the different animals, pandas included! You can also watch penguins, a tiger and a koala on the Edinburgh Zoo webcams too.
Smithsonian’s National Zoo
The Smithsonian National Zoo is one of the most well-known panda zoo’s, and it’s had pandas for a very long time – and you can watch the current residents male Tian Tian (not to be confused with Edinburgh’s female!) and female Mei Xiang 24/7! There are two camera views to choose from, one on each panda. When the zoo was open, these cameras were manned by volunteers during the day, so the cameras were actively changing their position or view so you could pretty much see a panda all of the time. This was a super fun way to keep updated when their cubs were just little babies – I watched Bei Bei a lot!
Calgary Zoo
Calgary Zoo is the one zoo on the list here that I haven’t been to yet – it’s on my ‘to visit’ list! Meanwhile I can keep up with female Er Shun and male Da Mao on their choice of 3 panda cams. As write this, there’s no panda on any of the videos but I’m getting a great view of the running waterfall and stream, it looks like a cool enclosure – and that’s on the inside! The cameras a split so 2 cams show the indoor enclosures and 1 is showing the outside which also looks like a nice space. The only downside to this camera is that you can only watch live between 9AM and 6PM Calgary (GMT-6), usually I’m trying to view too early!
While neither Pairi Daiza nor Berlin Zoo, the homes of the youngest pandas in Europe, have live panda cams on their websites, both are great at updating their social media pages with pictures and videos of the cubs progress!
