Two giant pandas at Moscow Zoo celebrated their birthdays this week: Ru Yi turned three on Wednesday and his female companion Ding Ding turned two the day before.
The pair emigrated from Sichuan to Moscow in April 2019 as part of a research collaboration between China and Russia. The project is going to last 15 years, with the bears living at a specially designed panda house at the zoo.
Ru Yi and Ding Ding are very curious creatures who are adapting well to their new climate, says the zoo’s director Svetlana Akulova.
Veterinarians monitor their condition at the zoo. These animal doctors taught the pandas how to stand on a weighing scale and hold out their paws for blood samples.
The bears are eating a diet of 99% bamboo but also enjoy apples, carrots and special pancakes made out of cereal. At the moment, the pandas wake up twice during the night to eat. This is not unusual for pandas, who are said to spend as many as 14 hours of the day munching on bamboo!
