Travel the world

Pandas, Elephants, Giraffes And More At Zoo Berlin

Pandas at Zoo Berlin! Well, us being in Berlin the month the pandas arrived was good timing, non? Of course, Sean and I had to say hello to Meng Meng and Jiao Qing!

The two giant pandas, the only ones in Germany, takes up residency at Zoo Berlin for the next 15 years, in a newly created compound, furnished with red lanterns, a climbing area, a mountain landscape and Chinese pavilions.

And boy, were they cute! Jiao Qing is a 7 year old male, weighing over 100 kilograms. He’s active, curious, mischievous and “all guy.” Sweet tempered Meng Meng is 3 years old and has a round face, and a cute short muzzle.

Meng Meng is also unique in that she has a rather odd habit: she likes to explore her surroundings backwards as well as forwards. In other words, she scouts out the terrain bum first sometimes. The behaviour started back in China and although experts are trying to determine why she does this, they say that it’s just a quirk and that there’s no real harm – considering she has a healthy appetite, is sleeping well and in good mental health.

We had to tear ourselves away from the pandas to check out the other animals at the world’s most species-rich zoo. Did you know Zoo Berlin has more than 19,000 animals from around 1,400 species spread out across 33 hectares of green space?

We didn’t get to see all 19,000 animals, obviously, but we did make a bee-line over to see our favourites:

…Like these 2 elephants who posed together when they saw me. How cute are they?? I couldn’t stop taking les photos of these pachyderms.

We spent some time with the giraffes, large cats and jellyfishes too.