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Fantastic footage has emerged of giant panda Yang Guang trying his paw at being the next Cristiano Ronaldo, as the male giant panda at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo was spotted by his keepers playing with a large, plastic enrichment ball in his sleeping den after the lights had already gone out.
The black and white night-time footage shows Yang Guang, whose name means Sunshine in English, energetically playing a bit of footie with his new toy, and whilst he might not be as skilled as Messi or Ronaldo, he does eventually score a goal through the door leading to his outdoor enclosure!
The powered-up-panda can be seen running after the ball and climbing onto and under his hammock in pursuit of his new toy, before 'pawing' the ball outside into his outdoor enclosure where he bounces it off some trees! Only occasionally distracted by bamboo, his favourite food, Yang Guang also performs a couple of ninja rolls off of his hammock and in one he even manages to smoothly transition from a ninja roll straight into nonchalantly eating bamboo whilst on his back. What a move!
Alison Maclean, Team Leader for Giant Pandas and Carnivores at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo, says: "The footage of Yang Guang playing with the large plastic enrichment ball is fantastic. Yang Guang isn't normally that interested in non-food enrichment - he can be quite single minded when it comes to his stomach - but the new toy must have caught his imagination and it looks like he thoroughly enjoyed his kick about. It is usually Tian Tian who is the more playful of the two.
"As well as being great fun for people to watch, enrichment plays an important role in the lives of the animals at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo, providing extra stimulation that helps them to demonstrate natural, species-typical behaviour and to enhance their physical and physiological well-being. Playing with the ball will help Yang Guang stay fit and healthy and he will also have a huge amount of fun in the process."
RZSS Edinburgh Zoo's keepers regularly integrate five different types of enrichment into their animal's lives, including environmental, habitat, sensory, food and social enrichment. The Zoo also has a dedicated enrichment group who get together to discuss exciting enrichment ideas.
You might be surprised to know that you can actually donate special animal friendly toys to RZSS Edinburgh Zoo! Many enrichment materials are common everyday items such as clothes, newspapers and bed sheets, whilst others can be a bit more unusual, such as fire hoses and bungee cords. The full list of items can be found here http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/support-us/animal-gifts/ but please do get in touch with the Enrichment Team atenrichment@rzss.org.uk first to discuss any possible donation you would like to make.
RZSS Edinburgh Zoo also has a dedicated Amazon Gift List:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/1NE1L5UV462AL
The video of Yang Guang playing with his ball can be found at the following link:https://youtu.be/dz3yQM-cf08