Kai Kai (凯凯) and Jia Jia (嘉嘉) are the panda residents of River Wonders (formerly River Safari), who arrived in Singapore from China in 2012 with a 10-year loan given by Chinese authorities. This is part of a collaboration between the China Wildlife Conservation Association and Wildlife Reserves Singapore to mark the 20th anniversary of China-Singapore relations. The seventh mating attempt led to the conception and birth of a baby panda cub on 14 Aug 2021, who weighed around 200g. This baby panda named as LeLe. At 7 months, Le Le has officially outgrown his own enclosure and today moved in with his mother Jia Jia at River Wonders’ Giant Panda Forest Exhibit. The cub put on about 6 kilograms in three months and now weighs almost 16 kilograms.
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Giant Panda Exhibit
The largest panda exhibit built in Southeast Asia, this exhibit spans 1,500m2. Simulating the bears’ natural habitat with lush plantings, boulders and water features, the state-of-the-art biodome is also temperature- and humidity-controlled to ensure the pandas’ comfort. The culmination of a year-long effort on the part of the WRS exhibit design team, this exhibit is climate-controlled and humidity is set at 50-60%. A domed roof constructed with double-paned glass alternating with insulated metal allows plenty of sunlight in. To enhance the giant pandas’ living environment, the team decided to include a waterfall with shallow pools, to give the pandas the opportunity to take a dip. Climbing structures were added to allow them to exercise their mobility.
RED Panda
Like the giant panda, the red panda has an extra digit on each paw that works as a ‘thumb’ to help grasp bamboo. This ‘thumb’ is actually a modified wrist bone covered by a fleshy pad. Red pandas are solitary, just like giant pandas. Similarly, females are only fertile for a couple of days a year and males seek them out only around this time. Despite the difference in size in the adults, newborn red pandas weigh 100g, as heavy as panda cubs at birth.
GIANT Panda
Kai Kai and Jia Jia are also free to roam about a specially-created outdoor area to experience Singapore’s tropical climate and to take in fresh air. Jia Jia especially enjoys this space. ach panda can eat up to 20kg of bamboo a day, which works out to a whopping 14,600kg a year! To ensure self-sufficiency in the pandas’ main food source, 3,000 clumps of bamboo were planted by our horticulturists on available plots of land around Wildlife Reserves Singapore’ three parks in Mandai.
Born of LeLE
After few years of trying, our panda pair welcomed their first-born on the morning of 14 August 2021. The little one weighed about 200g.
In Sep 2022, Le Le can come out to play at any time! Jia Jia and Le Le may not be in view if they need some privacy. Let’s give them some space to get comfortable with all the attention!
