Giant Panda Forest

After few years of trying, our panda pair welcomed their first-born on the morning of 14 August 2021. The little one weighed about 200g.

Conceived via a plan which involved natural mating techniques and assisted reproductive science based on advice from the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Panda, our newest little one marks an important milestone in the care of threatened giant pandas in Singapore.

Jia Jia and cub are in the maternity ward to nurse and bond while Kai Kai is in the exhibit. Stay tuned for more updates on our giant panda family!

The culmination of a year-long effort on the part of the WRS exhibit design team, this exhibit is climate-controlled and humidity is set at 50-60%. A domed roof constructed with double-paned glass alternating with insulated metal allows plenty of sunlight in.

Kai Kai and Jia Jia are also free to roam about a specially-created outdoor area to experience Singapore’s tropical climate and to take in fresh air. Jia Jia especially enjoys this space.

To enhance the giant pandas' living environment, the team decided to include a waterfall with shallow pools, to give the pandas the opportunity to take a dip. Climbing structures were added to allow them to exercise their mobility.

Giant pandas lead solitary lives, but the bamboo forests where they live are also home to many other species of animals. Likewise, Kai Kai and Jia Jia share their exhibit with their "neighbours", the red pandas.

Visitors can get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the daily food preparation process through the observation windows of the onsite kitchen. Fresh bamboo is cut every morning and stored in the specially-designed bamboo nursery at the exhibit.

Each panda is given a 5kg batch every two to three hours during their waking hours. The pandas also get up now and then at night to eat. Besides bamboo, our pandas also get 400g of carrots, 200g of apples and 550-800g of high fibre biscuits each.

Each panda can eat up to 20kg of bamboo a day, which works out to a whopping 14,600kg a year! To ensure self-sufficiency in the pandas’ main food source, 3,000 clumps of bamboo were planted by our horticulturists on available plots of land around Wildlife Reserves Singapore’ three parks in Mandai.

The sulphur, Thai and Buddha belly are grown specifically for the pandas’ intake. Other bamboo species planted about our parks for landscaping purposes are periodically harvested as food for the pandas.