Construction work at Zoo Atlanta's Panda House
Parts of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Giant Panda Center at Zoo Atlanta will be temporarily closed as of December 2, 2011. Due to construction projects, the two indoor giant panda exhibits and the interior giant panda viewing area will be closed to visitors. These areas are expected to re-open by December 6, 2011.
Visitors of Zoo Atlanta may still enjoy giant panda viewing from the outdoor exhibit, which will remain open during construction.
Panda Keeper Jen wrote this blog post about the construction:
Friday, December 2
Things will be a little different around PandaLand for the next few days. We’re getting a new roof installed over the viewing hut and dayrooms. Certain precautions have been taken to avoid any unnecessary accidents/issues with our lovable pandas. Both dayroom viewing and the first outdoor habitat have been blocked off from guests and the pandas while this project is underway, because we don’t want to expose guests or the pandas to any debris from the roofing project. The pandas can be sensitive to anything out of the ordinary and we don’t want them getting upset by all of the loud noise. As a result, we are only housing them inside the building and in habitats 2 and 3 (the latter of which is an off-exhibit area inaccessible to guests) during the day. We’re currently rotating Xi Lan and Yang Yang between the outdoor yards while keeping Lun Lun and baby Po inside because mom can be sensitive and protective and Po doesn’t shift reliably, yet.Ironically, so far, big ole dad Yang Yang is the only one who seems really upset by any of this. He hates the noise! We had him in habitat 3 – as far from the building as we can get a panda – and he was pretty upset with everything going on. He’s sensitive. We were able to get him to calm down eventually and he spent the afternoon resting. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
While this project is underway, one panda can be viewed each day in habitat 2, which is the exhibit farthest from the dayrooms. We expect all of panda viewing to be open as normal by Tuesday December 6.
Jen (Keeper I, Carnivores @ Zoo Atlanta)
