Yong Ba

Yong Ba is a female giant panda born on 1982-01-01 in the wild of Sichuan, China. She was captured and brought into human care as a subadult, before being assigned studbook number 274 by the global giant panda studbook program. She is the offspring of unknown wild giant panda parents. She gave birth to multiple surviving cubs during her time in human care, including well-known giant pandas Yong Ming and Su Lin. Currently living at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, she participates in the center’s captive breeding program for giant pandas. Her wild origin made her a valuable contributor to the program’s goal of maintaining genetic diversity in the captive giant panda population. As a wild-born giant panda, Yong Ba displayed natural foraging and denning behaviors retained from her early life in the wild. She was one of the foundational breeding females for the China Conservation and Research Center’s early expansion, supporting decades of giant panda conservation research and public education outreach focused on the species.