Toronto panda cam and 6 other zoo live streams to watch online

[A panda-cam began live streaming Toronto Zoo’s panda family on Wednesday. CBC NEWS]

Those who can’t make it to Toronto to see the city’s newest cuddly attraction don’t have to worry about missing out.

The Toronto Zoo has launched a panda cam, which allows anyone with an Internet connection to check out what Er Shun and her two 10-month-old cubs, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue, are up to during waking hours. (Spoiler alert: They’re usually sleeping.)

The cameras, which are mounted above the enclosure, will be rolling between 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Outside those hours, viewers can still watch pre-recorded videos.

Many other zoos and aquariums have live webcams trained on their enclosures, so that visitors from all over can tune in to what’s going on. Here’s a roundup of some of the animals from around the world you can watch right now.

London

While it may appear murky at first, the underwater POV from London Zoo’s penguin cam allows great insight into the playful birds. Watch them dunk and zip around from below or catch them having a feeding frenzy at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. local time.

Vancouver Aquarium

Beluga Aurora and her offspring Qila are two of the main attractions at the Vancouver Aquarium. So it’s no surprise that visitors from far and wide can watch them on a live stream, too. The beluga and porpoise cam allows online visitors to track the animals’ movements from underwater. There’s also a (very soothing) jellyfish cam, a penguin cam and one for sea otters.

Houston

Many of the main attractions of the Houston Zoo have cameras set up on their enclosures, so that viewers can almost be guaranteed to catch a mesmerizing moment. The giraffe, zebra and ostrich habitat cam allows online visitors to watch the animals from several different vantage points of their pen, like the entrance or at the hanging hay feeder. Some of the other nine webcam-equipped enclosures include the gorillas, chimpanzee and even leaf-cutter ants. Goes to show no creature is too small to be shown to the world.

San Diego

The San Diego Zoo’s penguins are the latest critters to get the spotlight directed on them for curious viewers to see. The tuxedoed birds can be seen floating around the temporary enclosure on their bellies. The eight other enclosures that are fixed to live streams include the ape cam, koala cam and tiger cam. Click here for the full list of webcam animals.

Dublin

This zoo has four webcams set up on its popular enclosures: The elephant cam is set up above the enclosure’s pond, where the Asian elephants bathe, a penguin cam on its 16 waddling birds, a wolf cam over its forest-like terrain, and a live stream on its African savanna, which features giraffes, zebras, ostrich, scimitar-horned oryx.

Seattle

The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has three webcams installed in some of its more popular enclosures. The tiger cam is positioned above the animal’s pen, while the 24-hour bat cam shows the creatures hanging from trees in front of a mountain landscape. The bear cam captures grizzly bear brothers Keema and Denali in their Northern Trail exhibit. Worth noting that the bears are sometimes out of view when they’re fishing for trout in their pool, and are pretty inactive during the winter months.