Star panda cub Tai Shan was busy climbing trees and exploring a waterfall Wednesday at the National Zoo's new Asia Trail exhibit, which opens next week as part of the popular attraction's ongoing makeover and expansion.
The $53 million renovation of nearly six acres about doubles the space for the zoo's three pandas and gives room for a few of their competitors, such as sloth bears and the newly arrived clouded leopards. It also gives visitors, who in the past were kept at a distance, a much closer look at the animals.
"This is a giant leap forward for the National Zoo," said zoo Director John Berry, who joined the staff about a year ago after the Asia Trail construction was underway. "Our goal is to renovate the entire zoo from top to bottom and bring everything up to Asia Trail standards."
The new exhibit will open to the public Tuesday.
As part of the expansion, Tai Shan and mother Mei Xiang have full run at the leafy new trees, rocky grottos and shallow pools for dips in the summer. New fog machines surround both visitors and pandas, helping to cool the area and to simulate the animals' natural habitat in China.
"This kind of topography will help keep them fit," said Lisa Stevens, curator for giant pandas and primates. "It's kind of nice to have to go looking for them."
Panda father Tian Tian, however, is being kept separate and remains in the pandas' old yard next door, due to breeding practices. Zoo veterinarians are hoping to bring the panda couple together this spring to let them try to breed again. The expanded space probably won't have a direct effect on their chances of breeding success, Stevens said.
The Asia Trial is the first element in a 10-year master plan to recreate the zoo at a cost of roughly $500 million — which, Berry said, will require support from Congress and the private sector. The zoo's largest benefactor has been Fujifilm, which sponsored the giant panda exhibit with a donation approaching $10 million.
The pandas are among the zoo's most popular attractions and have helped draw crowds expected to reach a record 3 million people this year — about a million more than last year.
In the pandas' new habitat, a winding trail was designed with an eye toward conservation and sustainability, with a recirculating water system for the pandas' waterfalls and environmentally friendly paths for visitors, made of biodegradable material bound by pine resin.
Interactive exhibits were built in along the way to educate the public about conservation science. "We want everyone to leave a little wiser," Berry said.
Among the newest animals along the Asia Trail are two red panda sisters, which resemble raccoons; a fishing cat, which hunts for her lunch just inches from visitors; and the elusive clouded leopards, which are being displayed at the zoo for the first time.
Zookeepers have learned that the fishing cats, which are slightly larger than house cats, are comfortable hunting skimmer fish from a transparent tank.
"It's very rare," said the zoo's reproductive scientist JoGayle Howard. "That's really the glory of studying these animals for so long."
Other animals sure to draw young admirers are the young, playful small-clawed otters from Southern India and China, which recently arrived from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. They very gladly pose for pictures.
"They're going to be a huge attraction because of that," said biologist Craig Saffoe. "They're very curious."
Rivaling the giant pandas for the amount of space gained in the zoo's renovation is the slightly less attractive sloth bear family. The sloth bears had previously been kept in an enclosure built more than 100 years ago.
The male sloth bear, Merlin, mother Hana, and male cub Balawat, born Jan. 9, were used to having visitors look down from above with a moat to separate them from people. But their new enclosure has windows for them to see humans close up.
"It's a bit of a nervous time for them, but they're adjusting well," said Asia Trail curator Tony Barthel. "I'm not particularly concerned about it because they have the choice to go away (and hide)."
Their space includes a wooded area and recreated termite mounds so they can suck insects into their cone-shaped snouts.
The next step in the zoo's renovation is an expanded four-acre enclosure for Asian elephants. The zoo hopes to break ground on the estimated $60 million Elephant Trails project in spring 2007, Berry said.