Panda Exhibit

I finally went inside the new panda exhibit! The other day when I was working with Ain, supervising some clearing of trees for a new lavatory, she asked me if I had been inside the new building yet, and we headed inside.

The building is the nicest building I have ever been to that was inside a zoo and is one of the nicest buildings I've seen overall. The whole building is shaped like an oval, and internally it is shaped like a U wrapped around 3/4 of an internal oval. The internal oval is the actual exhibit area for the pandas, while the U shaped portion contains the various veterinary rooms and offices, security surveillance rooms, conference rooms, and the tour areas focused on panda education. Most of the main construction has just recently been finished and a layer of dry wall dust still covers all the surfaces of the non-exhibit areas. Most of what the zoo staff is doing now consists of bringing in furniture, hand rails, lighting...the small stuff basically. They are also going through and testing the different systems that have been set up, including the security system, fire alarms, speakers and air conditioning, to name a few.

I wasn't able to take photos of the inside of the building, but the exhibit is impressive. Each panda has a half of the oval and the sides are separated by the raised visitor walkway. Each side has a waterfall going into a pond to reduce the noise from visitors so the pandas do not get startled, climbing platforms, ledges to climb the waterfall, a large grassy area, boulders, trees and , and a white boulder shaped object. I asked Ain about the white boulders in the middle of both sides and it turns out that those are cooling stones for the pandas to lie on, and they are white because they are currently covered in a layer of frost! That is one of the coolest things I've seen.

The entire room is really well put together. The landscaping uses some native species to the natural habitat of the pandas and is quite amazing looking. The pathways are patterned to look like stone and the railings look like bamboo. Working ornamental lanterns are hanging along the path and the floor has recessed lights. This new exhibit is sure to bring notoriety to Zoo Negara.