Bai Yun is far from construction noise.
Yes, it’s been noisy and dusty in the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Canyon for weeks now. A lot of dirt had to be moved around. Holes were dug, refilled, and dug into again. Soil had to be compacted, and digging on Zoo grounds always brings surprises. Changes have been going on since 1916, and every excavation turns up construction from the past. At last, most of the digging is completed and some building has begun.
The red panda area is under construction, and this brings more digging to install water and drainage, but seeing walls going up and pipes going down is encouraging. Occasionally the noise next door startles the pandas, but most of the time things are pretty calm. Bai Yun was moved to the north exhibit area to put some distance between her and the noise.
The “boys” are in the main area exhibit, and both are doing well. Yun Zi is all over the place, up and down the climbing structures, eating like a champion, and finding some really weird sleeping positions. I tell guests, “He looks uncomfortable to me, too, but he can sleep any way he wants, and this is what he chooses.”
Gao Gao is mellow, eating and sleeping most of the time. Since Gao moved to the left-side enclosure, he is climbing all over the place. The climbing structures in the left enclosure aren’t steep and seem less daunting. Occasionally Gao climbs up to the flat rock and plops down in Bai Yun’s former sleeping pose.
Speaking of sleeping, Yun Zi is napping in the front left corner, right against the wall on top of the storm drain. Guests have to lean over the rail to get a little peek of the panda. Su Lin slept in that same spot, and so did Gao Gao. There must be something about that spot seems to appeal to pandas.
Chris Tratnyek is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Gao Gao’s Special Day.
