Panda Archive

Katyusha

喀秋莎

Katyusha is a female giant panda born on 2023-08-24 at Moscow Zoo. She is the first giant panda cub born in Russia in more than 60 years, and her public debut drew widespread attention from global wildlife conservation communities and international audiences. She is the offspring of Ru Yi and Ding Ding, both adult giant pandas on long-term loan from China to Moscow Zoo. Ru Yi, with studbook number 1018, and Ding Ding, with studbook number 1087, arrived at Moscow Zoo in 2019 as part of a bilateral giant panda conservation cooperation program. Currently living at Moscow Zoo, he… she participates in a coordinated global ex situ conservation breeding program for giant pandas led by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. The program monitors her physical development and socialization to support long-term species recovery efforts. As a high-profile giant panda born outside of China, Katyusha attracts millions of annual visitors to Moscow Zoo, boosting public awareness of endangered species protection. She exhibits typical giant panda traits, including feeding on fresh bamboo and spending most of her daytime resting. Her birth marks a major milestone in Sino-Russian collaboration for giant panda conservation, demonstrating the success of international cooperative species protection frameworks.