Since late December 2005, Su Lin, the San Diego Zoo's giant panda cub, has been on exhibit from 9 a.m. to noon daily at the Giant Panda Research Station.

The cub's keepers say Su Lin is climbing and exploring the giant panda habitat, yet remaining close to her mother Bai Yun. The duo are given access to the den in the afternoon so the cub may choose to be indoors or remain on exhibit.

The cub has at least 24 teeth, is mouthing much more and has begun to perform headstands, a common activity in panda cubs.

The San Diego Zoo has the largest population of the critically endangered giant pandas in the United States. They include the female cub, the adult female Bai Yun, the adult male Gao Gao and Mei Sheng, a two-year-old male juvenile panda. It is estimated there are only about 1,600 giant pandas in the world.

After several months of waiting to see if the San Diego Zoo's female giant panda was pregnant, Bai Yun, a 13-year-old female, gave birth to a single cub on Tuesday, August 2, 2005, following a three-hour labor. The father is Gao Gao.

Su Lin was one of five names presented to the public through an online naming poll. The names had been submitted by the zoo's giant panda team and were approved by the People's Republic of China. The name received 44 percent of the vote and means "a little bit of something very cute" in Chinese. There’s also a historic significance; the first Su Lin giant panda arrived in the U.S. in 1936, almost 70 years ago.

The 100-acre San Diego Zoo is operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego, which also manages the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park (more than half of which has been set aside as protected native species habitat) and the Department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES).

The zoo is located in Balboa Park, just north of downtown San Diego.

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The San Diego Zoo
2920 Zoo Drive
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 231-1515