San Diego Zoo Blogs

As he grows and develops, panda yearling Yun Zi is undergoing the same husbandry training regimen as his siblings have before him. Since these bears will live their lives in managed care, it’s important that they can transfer on and off exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Giant Panda Research Station easily and quickly, responding in a positive way to their keepers’ requests, and that the training starts early and slowly. Now around 55 pounds (25 kilograms), Yunni is quite the double handful, literally and figuratively. He’s a strong, healthy, and playful little panda and, as far as he’s concerned, whether it’s Mom or keeper, he’s up for panda play. His teeth and claws at the ready, he’ll grab and pounce—not a problem for his furry mother but not such a good idea for the keepers, so it’s necessary for him to be off exhibit, in the bedroom, when keepers are servicing the exhibit.
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This is Chapter 3. Be sure to read Chapter 1, Rhinoceros Hornbills: A Fairy Tale, and Chapter 2, Rhinoceros Hornbills: Romance Blooms.

The male continued his craving for food; some weeks he was only interested in meat and bugs, while other weeks he gorged himself on bananas and other fruit. We believed that it was probably instinctual, and the male was looking for food that his chick needed at that stage in its development. Before too long, keepers started to hear the chick for the first time. There were mornings where the keepers could hear the chick begging for food from Mom after Dad had passed a crop full of food to his mate. The next big event—if not for the chick, then at least for the keepers—was when the chick first begged for food directly from Dad. We were excited because we were able to see the chick’s bill poking out from the small hole in the wall!
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Hi again from Brisbane, Australia, where for the last few weeks we have been gathering in our GPS collars and releasing the koalas back into their trees (see post Urban Koalas). It has been a hectic period, because I need to have all this work finished before I head back to St. Bees Island next month, so I am happy to reveal some good news from our recent work: almost all of the koalas we tracked this winter in the urban environment had babies, and when we released them, all these joeys seemed to be doing well.
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Russ is in Peru studying Andean (spectacled) bears.

This has been an especially dry and cold year on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. I’ve been told it’s also been unusually dry lower down in the lowland forests along the Amazon River and its tributaries. I don’t know whether the dry weather has made it easier for people to burn the forests to clear fields for agriculture or whether it has simply allowed the resulting smoke to persist longer and travel further. Either way, the burning of lowland forests has made it very smoky here in the hills. Those lowland forests are not only an incredible source of biodiversity, but they are also a vast depository of carbon, which is released into the atmosphere when the forests burn, contributing to global climate change.
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We don’t have to call him “baby” or “the May calf” or “the littlest one” any more: from now on the youngest elephant calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park will be called Emanti!

The Park held a naming ceremony this morning, which I was privileged to attend (any excuse to get away from my computer, right?). As they do every morning for Elephant Rush, the keepers had all of the elephants in the upper yard while Emanti’s name was painted in large letters on the rock outcropping in the main exhibit and then covered over with large pieces of leafy browse to hide the name. The plan: release May Baby, mother Umoya, and big sister Kami into the main exhibit first and see if one of them would pull the browse from the rock and reveal the name. Well, it didn’t quite work that way, but we got a fine show just the same.
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A couple months ago, I wasn’t so sure that this is such a wonderful time for biologists. Fresh out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with my bachelor’s in biology, it seemed like senior year was filled with nothing but assertions of the imminent doom of wildlife. In ornithology it was the decline of island bird species and the lack of migration corridors. In community ecology it was the destruction of the tropics and receding polar ice caps. In marine biology it was harmful algal blooms and coral reef bleaching. I left college feeling overwhelmed with the world’s problems, unsure about how to tackle them all.
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Enrichment is a big part of what keepers do at most zoos these days. But did you know that it isn’t just the keepers who are involved in making enrichment opportunities for our animals? 

Determining the type of enrichment that an animal will get is a very big process. Kym Nelson mentioned in a past blog post that enrichment needs to be approved, and that is very true (see New View of Enrichment). So how does it work? 

First, the keeper comes up with an idea. That idea needs to fulfill various criteria: is this an item this species would use? Will it cause friction among the group if there is more than one animal? What behavior is the enrichment meant to encourage? Is it store-bought or will it need to be made? If so, what materials are involved? 
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This is Chapter 2. Be sure to read Chapter 1, Rhinoceros Hornbills: A Fairy Tale.

January 6, 2010, the male and female rhinoceros hornbills moved into their new home. Once again, keepers were ready to break up any fighting. Once again, the birds showed us just how much they liked being with each other. With hardly a squabble, the male picked up a piece of food, hopped over to his new enclosure mate, and offered it to her. She daintily took the food and swallowed it. Over the next few weeks, the male solidified his bond with the female by bringing her the best food items in their pan. He may not have been just trying to be “nice,” though: food sharing is an extremely important part of the courting process.
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In the highlands of Santa Cruz Island, damp tradewinds from the southeast meet the fertile landscape at elevations around 1,100 feet (350 meters) and higher. As I mentioned in my previous post, Galápagos Islands: The Real Thing, the flourishing “cloud forest” is quite a contrast to the “arid zone” found to the north in the lower elevations.
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Hello, Black & White Overnighters!
I hope you are all caught up on sleep after what I have heard was a wonderful weekend (August 21 to 22) at the San Diego Zoo! Though I, unfortunately, could not be there for the big event, Sunni (your manager that evening), as well as Tristen, Mya, Robyn, and Kristina filled me in on the fun that was had by all. I heard that Suzanne Hall’s talk was a huge hit, as were the panda birthday cakes, enrichment making, and, of course, the pandas themselves and panda keeper talk on Sunday morning!
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