Er Xi

Er Xi (Chinese name: 二喜) is a male giant panda born on July 26, 2010, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province, China. He is registered under studbook number 792 in the global giant panda studbook system, the standardized database used to track individual panda lineages and support coordinated international conservation management. His lineage traces to two Sichuan-native giant pandas born and raised at the Chengdu Research Base: his father is Xiong Bang, registered under studbook number 461, and his mother is Ye Ye, registered under studbook number 547. He spent the first year of his life at the Chengdu Research Base, receiving routine veterinary care and species-appropriate socialization as part of the base’s ex-situ panda rearing program.

On his first birthday, July 26, 2011, Er Xi was transferred to Jinan Zoo in Shandong Province, where he has resided continuously since. As a healthy adult male, he exhibits all standard giant panda species traits, including a diet consisting primarily of multiple bamboo varieties, and follows a typical daily cycle of foraging, climbing, and resting. Jinan Zoo provides him with a purpose-built habitat designed to mimic natural panda environmental conditions, and conducts regular health monitoring to support his long-term well-being.

Er Xi plays a core role in Jinan Zoo’s formal public education and ex-situ conservation programming for the giant panda species. The zoo runs regular, evidence-based educational sessions for regional visitors that use his biology and life history to explain panda ecological needs, breeding program frameworks, and the history of giant panda conservation efforts. As a popular, widely recognized resident of the zoo, he also supports the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens’ broader public outreach work, raising visitor awareness of both documented conservation progress for the species and ongoing habitat protection initiatives in giant panda range areas across central China.