🐼 Bao Li

Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) · The giant panda habitat at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA

Lives in Bear Ridge

Bao Li was born on 4 August 2021 at the Shenshuping base in Wolong, China, and the National Zoo describes him as descended from its own former pandas Bao Bao, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang. He flew to the United States on 15 October 2024 and made his public debut alongside Qing Bao on 24 January 2025, an event covered worldwide and treated as the return of pandas to Washington. The zoo relaunched its panda cam for the pair — 40 cameras, live 7am to 7pm ET every day — and the National Zoo remains the only place in the US where you can see giant pandas for free. His name means 'active and vital power' in Mandarin, and his keepers describe him as the busy one.

What they do

Sits back on his haunches, hooks a bamboo stalk with one front paw and works it side to side through his jaws like corn on the cob, then flops flat on his back..

Very active, very nosy, and the one you will actually catch moving when you open the panda cam.

Lore

Helping the real one

💛 Support Bao via Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Fetched and confirmed as the zoo's own support page, offering online giving, membership, memorial gifts and enrichment-item donations for its animals and conservation work. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.

Where this comes from

Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.

Follow the real one

Giant Panda Cam — live 7am to 7pm ET
🗺️ See Bao moving in the park

Shares a habitat with

🐻 Grazer🐻 Otis🐻 Chunk🐻 Angela

Also in the park

🦛 Moo Deng🐕 Kabosu🐿️ PNUT🧸 Boo📦 Maru🐒 Punch