Panda pair makes debut with rousing welcome

Temple's 4-year-old daughter River wore two round pigtails atop her head, resembling panda ears. River wore a pink dress with a panda print and held a panda doll dressed in a pink dress to complete her panda look.

Temple's other daughter, 6-year-old Aspyn, waved a toy baby panda beside her mother and sister. Aspyn is a big fan of the Kung Fu Panda movies.

The two pandas had been in quarantine in Panda Ridge since their arrival in late June.

The renovated Panda Ridge is now an innovative space four times larger than San Diego Zoo's previous panda habitat, with an enclosure inspired by "famous geological formations in China, emulating mountains, canyons and cliffs" and the pandas' native habitats in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, a zoo news release said.

The new home also has "new shade trees for climbing, a diverse array of plants, and rolling hillsides that allow Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to navigate and explore vertically".

Marco Wendt, a wildlife ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said San Diego Zoo has grown 2.4 hectares of bamboo forest at the zoo and safari park, not only for food but also for bamboo conservation.

"We want to offer species-specific behavior," Wendt said.

Ling Shanshan, a veterinary expert from China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, told China Daily that San Diego Zoo has offered about 20 different types of bamboo for the pandas, with some varieties among their favorites at the moment.