Bai Yun

Bai Yun means 'White Cloud' in Chinese, and she was born on September 7, 1991. She's a giant panda, a big, fluffy bear with black and white fur. Imagine a fluffy cloud that loves to eat bamboo! Bai Yun was born in a special place in China called the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center. She was the very first female giant panda born there. That made her pretty special right from the start!

When Bai Yun was about five years old, she went on a super long trip all the way to the San Diego Zoo in California, USA! She lived there for over 20 years, which is a really, really long time for a panda. While she was in America, she had six baby pandas.

One of her babies, named Xiao Liwu, was born in 2012. Bai Yun was an amazing mom, and her babies were the most pandas ever born outside of China at a zoo!

After more than two decades, Bai Yun's big adventure in America came to an end. In May 2019, she traveled back to her home country, China. She didn't go alone; she traveled with her youngest cub, Xiao Liwu. It was like a big homecoming for Bai Yun! She returned to China as part of a special agreement between the San Diego Zoo and China to help protect pandas.

Giant pandas like Bai Yun are super important because they are rare and need our help. They eat almost only bamboo, which is like eating salad all day long! Pandas have a special 'thumb' on their paws to help them hold bamboo stalks.

Bai Yun's story shows how zoos and research centers work together to take care of these amazing animals and help them have babies, which is great for keeping pandas around for a long, long time.