Easily one of North America's best zoo exhibits, and it contains everything that a giant panda could possibly wish to have. It is amazing to think that this zoo is free!
The whole Asia Trail section of the National Zoo looks mind-blowing! It seems to have the best Asian-small clawed otter exhibit, best red panda, one of the best Clouded Leopard, and of course the best Giant Panda exhibit. 4 of some of the best exhibits for highly endangered animals.
The whole Asia Trail section of the National Zoo looks mind-blowing! It seems to have the best Asian-small clawed otter exhibit, best red panda, one of the best Clouded Leopard, and of course the best Giant Panda exhibit. 4 of some of the best exhibits for highly endangered animals.
Don't forget that the Sloth Bear exhibit is also one of the best. When I went to the zoo back in 2007, Asia Trail was still fairly new, so most of the plants were not as lush as seen here.
The giant panda, red panda, clouded leopard, sloth bear, small-clawed otter and fishing cat exhibits are all amongst the best of their kind, and the only animal that I didn't see when I visited were the Japanese giant salamanders as they were off exhibit at the time. One of the great things about the Asia Trail set of habitats is that the animals represented are all mammals (apart from the giant salamanders) and so that is memorable for fans of such endangered and extremely popular animals. My wife and I spent at least an hour in this section of the zoo first thing in the morning, and then we went back for a second hour before we left the zoo. Altogether we were at the zoo for just over 8 hours, and to this day my wife lists this as her favourite all-time zoo. She is not as much of an insane zoo nerd as I am, and acknowledges that places like San Diego, the Bronx and Omaha are massive, world-class facilities...but the National Zoo simply had so many of her favourite animals right in the Asia Trail habitats.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the giant salamander exhibit. When I went, the salamander exhibit was open, but it was disappointing because there was too much glare on the glass and it was almost impossible to see into the tank. There was somebody telling people were the salamander was in the exhibit, so all I saw was a large dark animal sleeping in the back of the tank.
This photo shows only one of the three huge giant panda exhibits, and they are all brilliant and far superior to any other panda enclosures in North America and perhaps the world. The two new habitats for pandas at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia pale in comparison to the Asia Trail area at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
