Toronto – Toronto Zoo (Pandas)

These photos date back to 2015 and were taken when Toronto Zoo had two pandas on loan, the female Er Shun and the male Da Mao. The pandas were on a ten-year tour of Canada, spending five years in Toronto from 2013, until they moved to Calgary in 2018. They were to give birth to two cubs whilst they were in Toronto and the whole family later moved to Calgary, although the two young pandas (named Jia Yueyue and Jia Panpan) went back to Chengdu in early 2020.

I was impressed at this display at Toronto Zoo, as although there was a bit of a queue, it got visitors nearer to the pandas than in some other zoos. This didn’t detract from the amount of space that the pandas had and they seemed happy enough. It seems that several videos of the pandas went viral from their time in Toronto and it helped the zoo reach some record attendances. It must have been quite sad for the keepers to have to say goodbye, as it also meant the closure of the entire panda area.

One of the information boards.