Kid Territory: Critters: Beautiful Bai Yun

Bai Yun A biscuit made for leaf-eating animals like giant pandas seems to meet with Bai Yun’s approval.

Bai Yun with food puzzle There’s nothing like a food puzzle to keep Bai Yun curious and active.

Bai Yun with new born Mei Sheng Can you imagine taking care of such a small baby? Yet Bai Yun has raised three panda cubs successfully. Here she is with her son, Mei Sheng, when he was just five days old.

Bai Yun with baby Su Lin Bai Yun gently moves her daughter, Su Lin, to a new location.

Zoo name: Bai Yun
Species: giant panda
Location: San Diego Zoo

Her story

Bai Yun is a female giant panda that was born at the Wolong Panda Reserve in China on September 7, 1991. She and an adult male panda named Shi Shi came to the San Diego Zoo in 1996 for a 12-year research loan. We hoped to learn much more about pandas than was known at the time. These pandas and their offspring have taught us so much!

Proud mom

Bai Yun’s name means “white cloud” in Chinese. Her coat looks like velvet but her fur is actually course and slightly oily, which helps keep her dry in rainy weather. She likes the cooler weather more than the warm weather–good thing she has an air-conditioned bedroom! Bai Yun has given birth to three of the five cubs to survive in the United States: Hua Mei, born here in 1999 and now back in China having cubs of her own; male Mei Sheng, born in 2003; and female Su Lin, born in 2005. Bai Yun has proved to be a very good mother, caring for tiny babies that are only three to five ounces (85 to 142 grams) at birth and just 1/900 of her size! Adult pandas like to live alone, so when each cub gets to be about a year old, Bai Yun starts to push her youngster away from the piles of bamboo she eats. This is one sign that tells her keepers she'll soon be ready for her cub to move into its own space.

Favorite foods

Wild pandas eat bamboo that grows in the mountains of southwestern China, and pandas depend on it for their survival. Here at the San Diego Zoo, we grow the bamboo for the pandas–they have their own personal gardener to cut it for them! Bai Yun likes to eat and spends several hours each day doing just that. Our panda mother has her favorite bamboo species, and will dig all the way to the bottom of the bamboo pile to find it. Sitting on her bottom or lying in a reclined posture, she will munch away; when she is finished, she climbs up on top of the den and takes her nap. She can sleep for hours, then is ready for her next meal. Bai Yun also likes apples and will do almost anything to get one. When she comes out to eat, she sometimes searches first for the apples until she has found them all. She enjoys carrots and yams, too, as well as a very special biscuit called a leaf eater biscuit.

A panda ambassador

Having giant pandas like Bai Yun living at the San Diego Zoo has given people here the opportunity to actually see a panda, as they are so rare outside of China. Observing and working with Bai Yun has allowed researchers and scientists a better understanding of giant panda biology and behavior. Some of the most important parts of panda biology that Bai Yun has let us observe include panda breeding biology and how panda mothers take care of their young.

Where can you see her

Bai Yun lives at the Giant Panda Research Station in the Zoo’s Panda Canyon. Our male pandas take turns being out on exhibit, but Bai Yun can currently be seen each day. You can also view our pandas daily on Panda Cam.