Panda Updates- Wednesday, March 30

Some of our eagle-eyed panda fans may have noticed that our indoor dayrooms recently got a bit of a facelift. We changed the mulch flooring in both dayrooms. While this may sound simple, it is in fact a massive undertaking that involves the coordination of multiple departments from around the Zoo, including our Animal Care, Maintenance, and Horticulture Teams. To complete this process, we had to dig out the existing mulch, which extends to nearly 18 inches deep in some areas, haul it out in wheelbarrows to dump into machines that would haul it away, and then haul in and level all the new mulch. All in all, we moved around 80 cubic yards of mulch to complete this process. The project took an entire workday, with around 10-12 people actively working on it at any given time. The mulch flooring is a great feature to our indoor habitats because it provides a naturalistic flooring that also provides cushioning on the pandas’ joints. This is great for Yang Yang and Lun Lun, as they age as well as Ya Lun and Xi Lun when they are rough-and-tumbling around the space. The process of keeping it may be extensive, but the result makes it all worth it! (Photo: Adrianna R.)