(previous interviews in this series can be found here.)

Welcome to another installment of Questions From a Kid. Today, Zoey chats with Jennifer Becerra, panda keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

After chatting with two other animal keepers, Zoey knew she wanted to talk to someone with a connection to pandas. A recent trip to San Diego yielded results.

The San Diego Zoo is rightfully one of the most famous and popular zoos in the country, but the animal collection is actually spread over two different complexes. The zoo itself is in downtown San Diego, and the Safari Park occupies 1,800 acres north of the city near Escondido.

Only four zoos in the United States have giant pandas, and their number totals only 12 (not counting the twins recently born at the National Zoo). It was therefore a real pleasure for Zoey to chat with one of the keepers responsible for the care of three of those pandas.

The San Diego Zoo’s three giant pandas (adult female Bai Yun, adult male Gao Gao, and 3-year-old male Xiao Liwu) are all at the downtown zoo location, and they live in state-of-the-art enclosures where an astonishing 700 pounds of bamboo are delivered every week!

As always, all questions are Zoey’s. I simply prompt her with “clue words” so she can remember. (Make sure you turn on subtitles if you can’t make out Zoey’s questions.)

Thanks so much to Jennifer Becerra for taking the time to chat with Zoey and to Andrew James with the San Diego Zoo for helping to arrange the interview!