Meet the famous faces from our live webcams

19/02/2021 in Edinburgh Zoo

Here at Edinburgh Zoo, we care for over 2,500 amazing animals and while we haven’t been able to open our gates to visitors for a while, we have been able to share some of them with the world through our live webcams.  

Our charity’s webcams and online education resources have been incredibly popular during lockdown, with panda cam alone being played over 6.1 million times last year! 

But who are the famous faces behind the live streams?   

Giant Pandas 

Yang Guang and Tian Tian at Edinburgh Zoo are the only two pandas in the UK. These animals are solitary in the wild, so you’ll only spot Yang Guang on our cam, though if he has to step away for any reason Tian Tian is always willing and ready to take over his cam responsibilities. Some of you might have enjoyed watching her last year, when she took centre stage on our cameras after some routine work meant Yang Guang had to be temporarily moved. 

Pandas like to shelter when it is cold and can spend between 12 and 16 hours napping, after consuming up to 100kg of bamboo every day! This means, when you see him having a sleep on the live cams, Yang Guang is doing what comes most naturally, blissfully unaware of the thousands of people watching him and trying to figure out what entertaining sleeping position he’ll come up with next. 

When he is not napping, he has lots of space to enjoy off-camera, including large outdoor areas with climbing frames, trees and pools, and private back rooms. Unless the keepers are in part of the enclosure delivering bamboo or cleaning, he is free to explore all day. 

Watch Yang Guang live

Koalas  

The star of our koala cam is Tanami, whose hobbies include sleeping and eating. Don’t worry if he doesn’t move much, like the pandas, koalas sleep for a lot of the day (up to 22 hours!) and prefer to spend time on their own. Tanami is most active in the morning and enjoys roaming around when we put out his breakfast. 

He eats around 500 grams of eucalyptus every day – that’s the equivalent of a small bag of sugar! 

In total we are home to five Queensland koalas, as well as Tanami, we have Goonaroo, Inala, Kalari and her young joey who is yet to be named. They are the only Queensland koalas in the UK. 

Watch Tanami live

Tigers  

We have two Sumatran tigers which are the smallest tiger subspecies and are critically endangered in the wild - a female named Dharma and a male called Lucu. Both of which can be seen on tiger cam.  

Sumatran tigers usually live alone in the wild and are quite shy, so the pair are still being introduced to one another. We are currently switching them between two separate enclosures as part of our introduction plan so they can get used to each other's scent.  

Don’t worry if you can’t see them right away, it’s surprising how well an orange cat can blend into green leaves. Dharma and Lucu are most active in the morning and evening, or when the sun is out, which is when they enjoy lounging on the platform having a catnap. 

Watch our tigers live

Lions  

Meet our Asiatic lion pride, dad Jayendra, mum Roberta, and their three cubs Mitaali, Keshari and Kushanu. 

In August 2019, Roberta gave birth to the cubs, who were named in tribute to the Gir forest in western India where the endangered species is found. 

While lions enjoy their outside time, they are only active for about four hours a day and they spend the rest of their time sleeping or at rest. Like a lot of our animals, they are most active in the early morning or later in the afternoon. You have to have an eagle eye to catch them! 

Watch our lions live

Penguins  

Last but not least, we have our cheeky penguin colony. Edinburgh Zoo is home to the largest outdoor penguin pool in Europe, with three different species (gentoo, king and rockhopper) and over 100 individuals, which can all be viewed on our penguin cam. 

None of our penguins are camera shy and like to be front and centre for most of the day. You may even spot Kevin, our naughtiest penguin, who has a lifetime ban from the penguin parade for pecking at our visitors! 

You can find out more about our penguins and meet some of our most interesting characters in our recent Penguin Awareness Day blog.

Watch our penguins live

Quick live cam tips 

• The best time to see any of the animals on our live webcams is first thing in the morning or early-evening when they are often out and about. 
• If you are experiencing a lot of buffering, try clearing your cached data and cookies or try a different browser as this can often fix the issue.
• Many of our animals needs lots of sleep, some are happier living on their own and they all have access to off-camera areas - so please be patient if you can't spot them on the camera right away.

You can help 

If you've enjoyed watching our webcams you can help feed and care for the animals you love with a donation today.