Kobe Oji Zoo’s Cute Red Panda

With the start of the New Year, I decided to see what was new at Kobe Oji Zoo in Kobe City.

First of all, the Waterfowl exhibit had a new walk-in area for visitors – it was quite an improvement. In the past, visitors had to view the animals through the netting used to keep the captive birds in and the local birds out.  The netting was an obstacle to visibility, and visitors would often walk by without stopping to take a look at the birds.  With the new walk-in terrace, visitors can get a closer, unobstructed view.

View inside the Waterfowl exhibit.

Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)

Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata)

I also visited the Koala House.

Umi, a female Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) born in June 2014 was awake and eating.  And while she doesn’t really qualify as something “new”, the Koalas are usually sleeping when I visit, so I am including a photo.

Next to the Koala House was the enclosure for the Red Pandas (Ailurus fulgens styani), usually referred to as “Lesser Pandas” in Japan.

The young female Tiara, born July 6, 2015, was roaming the exhibit with her mother Minfa.  She was extremely cute and a great crowd pleaser.  I took quite a number of photographs and am including a small album here.

Finally, I also made sure to stop in on an old friend - “Yama”, the female Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica).  Yama was born May 21, 2000 at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, and is now 15 years old – which is older than most tigers in the wild manage to survive.  Despite her advanced age, she still has a very regal presence.  Long live the Queen!

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on January 4, 2016.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)

The Panda in Kobe

Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

In 2011, when Ueno Zoo in Tokyo received two new pandas from China, “Ri-ri” and “Shin-shin”, the predominantly Tokyo-based news media made a great fuss.  It had been 3 years since the previous resident panda Rin-rin had died at the age of 22 years, and the Tokyo media decided to go into hype-up overdrive. On the day that Ri-ri and Shin-shin were first publicly displayed, it was even reported that some enthusiastic panda fans had been standing in line from the previous day.  Watching the young television news announcers become giddy and excited about seeing a panda for the first time, I thought that the circus in Tokyo was ridiculously comic because there were already pandas living at Adventure World in Wakayama and at Kobe Oji Zoo in Hyogo.  If anyone had really wanted to see a panda that desperately, all they had to do was buy a Shinkansen train ticket and come west.

Since January 12 (Monday) was the “Coming of Age Day” holiday in Japan, I took advantage of the day off to visit “Tan Tan” (female), the resident panda at Kobe Oji Zoo.  Tan Tan was born at a panda research facility in China on September 16, 1995, and will turn twenty years old this year.  Although Japanese young people are deemed to “come of age” and become adults when they reach the age of 20, pandas of that age are considered to be senior citizens.  Pandas in the wild are thought to have an average life span of 15 years.  And while pandas in captivity frequently live into their 20’s, they rarely reach 30.

Below is a photo of the outdoor portion of Tan Tan’s enclosure.  She also has an indoor area that is almost the same size.

Tan Tan lunching on bamboo leaves:

Here is a video version:

Food and Souvenirs

For Panda lovers, a vendor in Kobe Oji Zoo offers panda-shaped Chinese pork buns for 250 yen each.

As for a gift or souvenir, the cute plush panda below was 1300 yen.

And last of all, a photo of the Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens styani).  Not related to the Giant Panda, but since it’s such a cutie, I thought I’d include a photo.

Very cute.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on January 12, 2015.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)