Snowstorm video shows National Zoo’s giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao playing in fresh snow

Winter closure, active animals

A newly released video from Washington’s Smithsonian’s National Zoo shows the facility’s giant pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, using a fresh snowfall as an outdoor playground during a winter storm that temporarily shut the zoo to visitors. The footage, drawn from the zoo’s panda viewing feed, captures both animals climbing, tumbling and interacting with enrichment items as snow accumulated in their habitat.

In the same period, zoo operations continued behind the scenes despite the public closure, with animal-care teams maintaining normal feeding and husbandry routines. Zoo staff also ensured animals could move indoors as needed to manage cold conditions during the storm.

What the footage shows

The video centers on the pandas’ energetic behavior in snowy conditions. Bao Li is seen performing repeated somersault-like rolls near the mesh barrier that separates areas of the panda habitat—an element of the exhibit used to manage how the two animals are housed and introduced. Qing Bao appears to explore the snow-covered terrain, climbing and moving through the enclosure while watching the activity across the barrier.

Additional scenes from elsewhere at the zoo show other species responding to the same weather event. Animals including kunekune pigs, a sea lion and a red wolf are shown moving through snow-covered spaces and engaging with their environments as keepers monitored conditions.

Why the pandas’ snow play draws attention

Snow-day panda videos have a long history of public interest in Washington, where the zoo has used camera feeds and short clips to provide access when weather limits on-site visitation. Similar winter footage of previous National Zoo pandas circulated widely in earlier years, reflecting an ongoing pattern: cold-weather conditions can prompt increased activity in giant pandas, a species native to mountainous regions of China.

Context: a new panda chapter in Washington

Bao Li and Qing Bao are the National Zoo’s current pair of giant pandas under a cooperative research and conservation agreement between the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The pair arrived in the United States in October 2024 and made their public debut on January 24, 2025, marking the return of giant pandas to the nation’s capital after the prior pandas—Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji—departed for China in November 2023 at the conclusion of an earlier agreement.

• Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived in Washington in October 2024.
• They debuted to the public on January 24, 2025, alongside the relaunch of the zoo’s Giant Panda Cam.
• The current agreement is structured as a long-term partnership focused on care, research and conservation.

The storm kept visitors away, but it did not pause animal care operations, and the pandas’ snow activity became a focal point for remote viewers watching the live feed.

The latest clip adds a new entry to the zoo’s winter catalog: a moment of high-energy behavior during a period when Washington’s regional weather disrupted travel, school schedules and public openings across the area.