If you are headed to the Panda exhibit this weekend at the San Diego Zoo --- It's closed!
The park has closed off the main part of the area to visitors to give the Pandas some privacy. Veterinarians’ suspect the next few days are the animal’s peak time for breeding, Zoo officials said.
For the past few weeks, researchers have been tracking the hormone levels of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, the zoo's adult Panda couple. The two panda's are usually kept apart, zookeepers said, but when Bai Yun begins exhibiting traditional mating behavior the two will be allowed to interact.
Pandas are solitary animals and it can be dangerous to allow other bears in another’s habitat, unless it is mating season, officials said.
Bai Yun, 19, has already given birth to five panda cubs, Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Su Lin, Zhen Zhen, and Yun Zi.
Yun Zi will be viewable to the public in the north exhibit of the Zoo's Giant Panda Research Station.
