The San Diego Zoo has had a love affair with giant pandas ever since two of the black-and-white bears came to visit in 1987. After years of red tape and tons of application paperwork, the Zoo and China agreed on a 12-year research loan of two giant pandas, Bai Yun and Shi Shi. A brand-new exhibit area was built for our panda guests, which has since been expanded and renovated and is now called the Giant Panda Research Station. Although we currently have four giant pandas, our facility can comfortably house up to six!
Today our giant pandas enjoy deluxe accommodations with larger exhibit areas and extra vegetation and climbing structures. You'll enjoy the newer exhibit area too, with its winding, elevated viewing paths that give great panda-watching opportunities into the two main enclosures.
Visiting the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park helps support our studies of wild giant panda populations. Our Applied Animal Ecology Division established its first conservation science program for wild pandas at the Foping Nature Reserve in China in 2006. The program utilizes radiotelemetry to research several important areas to futher our understanding of natural giant panda behavior and ecology. These include: mating strategies and genetic diversity of panda populations, denning ecology, habitat use and movement patterns, and human disturbance.
Which Panda Am I Seeing on Panda Cam?
Look for the "C" followed by a number in the lower left corner of the Panda Cam image. The number indicates the area of the Panda Station exhibit we are viewing (subject to change!):
- 1–3: Gao Gao
- 4–7: Zhen Zhen
- 11, 15, 17, 27–29: Bai Yun
- 30–32: Su Lin
