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About Author: Suzanne Hall

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76

Pandas, Bears, and Pregnancy

By
Suzanne Hall
– July 28, 2012Posted in: Animals and Plants, Pandas, Uncategorized

Bai Yun’s ultrasounds have revealed a leg, spine, and heartbeat.

The giant panda diverged from the rest of the bear lineage some 20 million years ago, and they have developed some really unique traits not shared by other bears as a result. Dependence on bamboo for sustenance and the development of the pseudothumb to aid in bamboo acquisition are two examples of differences between pandas and other bears. However, when female pandas are pregnant (or pseudopregnant) they remind of us of just how bear-like they are. Although pandas do not experience the hibernation-like state of cold-weather bears most of the time, the females still couple hibernation-like behaviors with the changes in their pregnancy-related hormones.

Cold weather bears like polars, black and brown bears give birth while denned up in the winter. The females rear their young for the first few months in the quiet warmth of their den, before emerging in the spring. During the denning period, females generally forego food and are largely inactive, producing milk to sustain their young while they themselves conserve energy by resting. Winter is a good time for females to slow down and fast, because they wouldn’t find much food anyway during the frozen months of that season. Springtime is a good time to emerge hungry from the den because food abundance is on the uptick at that time of year, and the mothers leave the den with a long season of good eating ahead of them.

Panda mothers experience the same sluggishness and fasting behaviors, but their window for such behavior isn’t coupled with winter. This is probably because bamboo is not a seasonally available food source; it’s around them all year long.  Pandas tend to den up in the summer months instead. Those are some of the warmest months in the mountain ranges in China, and caring for tiny, fragile neonates during warm months affords the mother the opportunity to keep her cub sufficiently warm even when she needs to leave the den to feed a few weeks after birth, as panda mothers do.

Bai Yun’s hormones are in full pregnancy mode, declining from a peak a few weeks ago towards a presumptive birth window. To that end, we have kept monitoring her hormones, behavior, thermo imaging and ultrasound. What do our results show thus far?

Her behavior is interesting, showing a slight increase in denning activity over a week ago. She is building her nest. She is sluggish and still declining her bamboo, but has also become very finicky with respect to non-bamboo too. She has begun insisting that keepers peel her apple slices during husbandry sessions; no skins for Bai Yun! Her hormones continue to drop toward baseline. And her ultrasounds have revealed: a fetal heartbeat!

Yes, we are very excited to think Bai Yun is carrying what we hope will be her 6th cub. We are patiently waiting and crossing our fingers that she will carry this cub to term. I know you will be crossing your fingers with us!

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician with the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous update, Panda Update: Seeking Seclusion.

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62

Panda Update: Seeking Seclusion

By
Suzanne Hall
– July 23, 2012Posted in: Animals and Plants, Pandas

Only time will tell if Bai Yun is indeed pregnant.

Bai Yun continues to demonstrate appropriate behavior for a pregnant (or pseudo-pregnant) female. One particular behavior, known as “seeking seclusion,” has led to a change in her access this week.

Until recently, Bai Yun was given free run of the behind-the-scenes area near her bedroom, including her sun room, garden room, tunnels and off-exhibit classroom. However, as her potential pregnancy wears on, she is more inclined to stay close to home, and doesn’t seem to like sleeping out on the climbing structure in the classroom anymore. She prefers tucked-away places, like the garden room platform or the den. As a result, we have shut the door on the classroom exhibit. It won’t open again until she demonstrates more interest in stretching her legs after the influence of her pregnancy hormones have worn off.

Seeking seclusion seems a smart move for a panda mother-to-be. Panda cubs are fragile, helpless and totally dependent upon their mothers for meeting all of their needs. The work involved in the constant care and nurturing of the panda neonate requires all of mother bear’s attention, and distractions in the area come at a cost to the mother and cub. If she is focused on external disturbances, mother bear has that much less attention to give to the activities inside her den. Tucking into a quiet, secluded space allows the female to focus on what is important: care of the cub, and her own rest and recovery.

As the days fly by, we can expect Bai Yun to continue to narrow her focus from the surrounding areas to the den. If she is indeed pregnant rather than pseudo-pregnant, we should see her spend most of the day in the den starting a few days before a birth. Currently, she is visiting the den 3-5 times each day for periods of up to 30 min at a time, but the majority of her day is spent in the garden room or bedroom.

We’ll keep you posted as to her progress.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Panda Pregnancy Watch in Full Force.

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94

Panda Pregnancy Watch in Full Force

By
Suzanne Hall
– July 12, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Animals site main feature, Bears, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Pandas, Uncategorized

Bai Yun has been sequestered behind the scenes at Panda Trek for some time now in order to provide her the solitude and environment most conducive to a successful pregnancy and cub-rearing experience. Surely many of you are wondering: is Bai Yun showing any signs of pregnancy? Until about a week ago, the answer was “no.” During most of the time since breeding in spring, she has been her normal, hungry, and active self.

We have been tracking many behavioral and physiological parameters that could give us a clue as to her pregnancy status, one of which is her appetite for bamboo. A decline in bamboo feeding is one of the first reliable behavioral indicators that something is happening with Bai Yun. When we see that she has begun leaving the leafy greens behind at a meal, we know that we are about three to four weeks from a potential birthing window.

Guess what? She started falling of her bamboo feeding late last week.

But hold on. Bamboo feeding generally gives us a broad idea of a birthing window, but it does not actually tell us if she is pregnant. Pseudopregnant females also experience similar changes in feeding patterns. So while we might have a picture of when a birth might occur, we cannot say for sure that a cub is on the way.

Bai Yun has been sitting for regular ultrasounds and thermo-imaging procedures, and we are collecting urine for hormone assays as well. I can tell you that her hormone profile is in full swing, and the ultrasounds have shown some positive changes indicating the hormones are having the desired effect on Bai Yun’s uterus. But again, all of this is consistent with pseudopregnant females as well.

As a result of these changes, we have given her access to her birthing den. In it, she has begun building her nest with bits of bamboo. She occasionally takes short naps in the den. She is showing us more positive pregnancy—and pseudopregnancy—behavior.

And so we wait. The days ahead will be telling. If we are able to visualize a fetus via ultrasound, we will know this is a true pregnancy. Keep your fingers crossed!

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, The Bears Thank You.

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14

The Bears Thank You

By
Suzanne Hall
– May 17, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Pandas, Projects in the Field, Uncategorized

Enrichment toys are vital for a recovering sun bear's health. Photo courtesy of BSBCC

Several months ago, we put out a call via our Animal Care Wish List asking for donations to provide enrichment items for the sun bears housed with our new collaborative partner, the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC). You responded generously, and I am pleased to say we were able to send six new toys to the bears at the BSBCC. Thank you so much for your generosity!

The sun bear is a rare bear whose habitat is dwindling rapidly under pressure from deforestation. Primary causes of forest loss include illegal timber extraction and the development of palm oil plantations. Very few studies of wild sun bears have been conducted, and a population census of this species, or the Bornean subspecies, has never been conducted. However, their numbers must surely be on the decline as their habitat steadily shrinks.

One of my objectives is to find more opportunities to conduct research with sun bears, to learn more about them and facilitate conservation of this species. We have had the opportunity to observe the growth and development of four sun bear cubs born to our resident female, Marcella, but a larger sample size of animals was needed to conduct any statistically meaningful research into various aspects of their biology. Enter the BSBCC.

Siew Te Wong founded the BSBCC in Sabah, Borneo, to serve as a rescue and rehabilitation facility for orphaned and injured sun bears. “Wong,” as he is called, had conducted field work on these animals but recognized the need to provide care for bears impacted by forest loss and the illegal pet trade. In only 4 years of operation, the BSBCC has accumulated more than 20 sun bears. Some are destined for Wong’s developing reintroduction program, which will see them repatriated to the wild in time. Others are not good candidates for release and will likely live out their years at the BSBCC.

Thankfully, the BSBCC goes the extra mile to ensure a good home for its sun bears. It has several large outdoor pens that are essentially areas of enclosed natural habitat: giant trees, heavy canopy, soft forest soil, and a multitude of plants and bugs for the bears to enjoy. The enclosures are so natural that wild monkeys and birds often cruise in and perch in the canopy of their trees. The bears are carefully managed so that agreeable animals can be housed together as playmates when possible. Even so, there are so many of these animals that on any given day a few of the bears will be rotated inside so others can enjoy the outside spaces.

The BSBCC likes to provide enrichment for their indoor animals to ensure that their environment remains as stimulating as possible. And that’s where you come in. Your donations helped to aid in maintaining a quality of life for these bears that ensures their physical and emotional well-being. The photos here demonstrate that the bears are enjoying the toys immensely!

We are excited about developing our partnership with the BSBCC into a research opportunity. This will aid in the conservation of the smallest bear on Earth and could lend insight into the bear family tree. We know from our past work, for example, that sun bear mothers and panda mothers are very similar in their attentive maternal-care styles, and both pandas and sun bears differ from the less active hibernating bears like brown and black bears. What other similarities and differences between the bear species will we find?

Your gifts of enrichment were the first step in what I hope will be a long and informative road that leads to new discoveries about sun bears. Thank you again.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Monday: Black, White, and the Blues.

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37

Monday: Black, White, Blues

By
Suzanne Hall
– March 26, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Pandas, Uncategorized

Gao Gao tries to encourage Bai Yun into a mating posture.

Sunday, March 18, was a great day at the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Trek, with three copulations achieved between panda adults Bai Yun and Gao Gao (see post Sunday: Persistence Pays Off). Despite the rain and wind, our bears had been paired five times.Toward the end of the day, however, Bai Yun had shown reluctance to drop her shoulders to the ground into the posture we call lordosis, and this made things more difficult for Gao Gao. It is an absolute necessity for her to get low so that Gao Gao has the access he needs to ensure a copulation.

On Monday morning, March 19, we assessed Bai Yun at first light to determine if there was a possibility of pairing them again that day. All of her behavioral signals still looked good: she bleated frequently, gave us a ready tail-up when touched, and walked backward toward us. When we put her out into the exhibit to assess Gao Gao’s response to her across the howdy gate, her behavior remained strong, and she began chirping at him.

An interesting side note: Bai Yun reserved her chirp for her mate this year. She was almost never heard emitting this vocalization outside of his presence. Our past research has demonstrated that males can ascertain a female’s breeding readiness from the structural content of that chirp, and it seems Bai Yun wasn’t wasting her efforts on chirping at any of us! It’s as if she knew that only Gao Gao could decipher the message.

For his part, Gao Gao was in fine shape. We might have expected him to be a bit sore and slow on Monday, given his high level of physical exertion the day before. Certainly that had been the case in recent years. This time around, he seemed to suffer no ill effects. He was at the gate right away that morning, and although he wasn’t initially showing signs of high motivation to pair with Bai Yun, he was nonetheless interested in checking her out. He stood at the gate in the rain and mud and watched, sniffed, and vocalized.

After a half hour of assessment, Gao Gao decided she was still ripe for his attention. With rain buffeting us, we opened the howdy gate. The bears moved toward each other right away. In a few minutes time, the two were tucked inside the passageway between the two exhibits, attempting to achieve the correct position for mating.

We’ve always been quite lucky in San Diego, at least since Gao Gao arrived. While pandas can take quite some time to achieve the mating position in a manner that allows copulation, our pair has typically been very efficient. We have never had to wait more than a few minutes, perhaps half an hour, before they succeeded. Having watched mating introductions in Wolong, I know that it isn’t always so easy. Sometimes staff observes for an hour or more before a mating is accomplished, particularly if the breeding pair involves one or more inexperienced animals.

On Monday, I felt like I was back in Wolong. As each attempt to achieve the correct posture failed, Gao Gao would push and pull and nibble on Bai Yun, coaxing her into shifting a little to allow him a different angle to work with. However, on this muddy, wet day, Bai Yun seemed very reluctant to leave her sheltered spot in the passageway. Not only was she out of the rain there, but she was also on a cement pad, out of the mud! Could this possibly make a difference for a panda? She is a bear, after all! In the wild, pandas mate in snow and rain and mud and all kinds of conditions. But Bai Yun has apparently become something of a princess during her time in San Diego. She seemed reluctant to give herself over to getting that dirty and wet. Unbelievable.

We watched as the minutes ticked by: 30, 45, 60 minutes passed. Gao Gao was getting a little tired from his efforts. He’d pause briefly to sit beside her, panting heavily. But after a breather, he returned to his duties, trying to force her to move her body so that he could gain access. As time wore on, she seemed to be tiring, too, and she moved into the low, lordosis posture less frequently.

After about an hour and 15 minutes, we decided to try to reset the bears and get them out of the tunnel passageway. If we could get them back to Bai Yun’s exhibit area, then perhaps they could find the slope that had facilitated their copulations in the past; with Bai Yun head-down on the slope, Gao Gao seems to have better access. So we called them apart, closed the howdy, and let them line up once again. They weren’t ready to quit and were anxious for us to reopen the door.

After about 15 minutes apart, we gave them access again. Unfortunately, Bai Yun moved straight for the passageway. Once again, she parked herself on that cement pad and refused to budge. Gao Gao worked hard to get the job done, but Bai Yun was no longer getting into lordosis, and she wouldn’t allow him to drive her out of her sheltered spot. Finally, after a cumulative effort of about two hours, Gao Gao gave up.

He walked away. But she followed. She turned her backside to him and chirped away. He walked away again. And she followed. She was not ready to give up, apparently. But neither was she willing to drop her shoulders for him. And Gao Gao was tired. He finally let her know he wanted to be left alone. At that point, staff intervened, and we separated the two into their respective enclosures. The howdy gate was closed between them, most likely for the last time.

Although we would have liked to see another breeding on that day, we were pretty happy to have accomplished three copulations during this breeding season. As Bai Yun’s estrus behavior waned throughout the week, life returned to normal at Panda Trek. And now, our focus shifts to what lies ahead. I know you’ll be with us on the journey toward the possibility of a new panda cub in San Diego.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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84

Sunday: Persistence Pays Off

By
Suzanne Hall
– March 20, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Our adult pandas' size difference is clear to see!

After an auspicious start on Sunday, which began with an early breeding between giant pandas Bai Yun and Gao Gao, San Diego Zoo staff had planned to give our pandas a break of several hours to rest. After the high level of physical exertion associated with breeding attempts, rest periods help recharge the bears’ batteries. The pandas grab a quick snack and a catnap and wake up feeling refreshed.

Somewhat unusually, Gao Gao maintained a very high level of motivation after that first breeding, refusing to rest. He motored about his exhibit, bleating and checking the howdy gate. He grabbed an occasional drink or bite to eat but kept his focus on his mate. Bai Yun, for her part, kept close to that gate, rear-presenting and making it clear she would be happy to have Gao Gao with her again. In order to take advantage of their obviously high level of arousal, we opted to skip the break period and allow them access to one another sooner rather than later. It paid off. At 10:29 a.m., a second mating was achieved.

Staff was elated. Both bears were doing well, we had two matings under our belt, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Despite the crazy weather (it was hailing on us at one point as we watched the bears wrestling in the drizzle), our charges seemed focused, strong, and willing. Surely now that they had managed to copulate twice, they would want to take a break, right?

Wrong. Maybe Gao Gao worried that Bai Yun might have weaker motivation the next day. Or maybe he was aware of his own tendency to be a little slower the day after breeding, feeling the effects of muscle fatigue and soreness. Or maybe he just likes his girlfriends covered in mud. For whatever reason, our boy just would not settle down! He continued to pace and bleat and paw at the gate when she was near. Bai Yun continued to bait him at the howdy gate.

It was decided that if the bears were up for it, we should let them have another shot. Again the gate was opened. For some time, the two worked the mating dance without success. The rain poured down some more, and the wind blew dried bamboo stems down from the stands surrounding the exhibits. And still they worked at it. Ultimately, they did not succeed, so we separated them again to reset the stage.

Almost comically, the bears again refused to leave each other alone. Really, Gao Gao? How can you be so undeterred by the mud and wind and rain? We are soaked through and exhausted just watching you. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you are a senior bear? But I digress.

After much debate, we opted to go with Gao Gao. Up went the howdy gate, down came the rain. They interacted for another half hour or so, but again no mating was realized. Surely, they must be done for the day, we thought. They had to be tuckered out by now. But…well, I think you can guess where this is going!

His motivation still urgent, Gao Gao was letting us know he was still very interested in Bai Yun. Some of Bai Yun’s sexual behaviors were still building in intensity, which was encouraging. However, as she tired, Bai Yun had seemed more and more slow about adopting a posture of lordosis, in which she lowers her shoulders to the ground. Let’s face it: Gao Gao, for all his vigor, isn’t a very big boy. If our female doesn’t get low to the ground, all the vigor in the world just isn’t going to help.

Maybe this was a factor of her age (“Oh, my aching back”), or perhaps the weather conditions (“It’s muddy and wet down there”). For whatever reason, Bai Yun was not as cooperative as Gao Gao would have liked, and this was a contributing factor to their lack of success midday.

Persistence pays off, however. The fifth time(!) we paired our bears, Gao Gao managed to coax Bai Yun into the proper position. He finally accomplished what he had been working so hard to achieve for the last few hours. A third copulation was realized at 1:28 p.m.

Sunday afternoon, we sealed the howdy gate between the bears and left them with a heavy feed. Our hope was that they would fill their bellies and rest. Ideally, we would like to see one more mating out of this pair, not because three isn’t a good number (it is!), but because we are interested in seeing if we could spread out the timing of their breedings a bit to ensure we catch that egg when it is released. The precise timing of ovulation in the breeding cycle is still a bit of an enigma to us, and we would like to have a wide breeding window to maximize the likelihood of fertilization. So we decided to come in again on Monday and try again.

Did Bai Yun remember to get her shoulders down? Did Gao Gao wake up too tired to try again? Did the hail return to spice things up? What happened on Monday? You’ll have to wait until my next installment to fill in those blanks. Right now, I’m going to crawl under a (dry) warm blanket and catch up on some rest myself.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Dependable Pandas.

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21

Dependable Pandas

By
Suzanne Hall
– March 19, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas

Open the door, please!

Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night…

We’ve had some wild weather here in Southern California for the past few days. Saturday night, a blustery storm passed through. Blowing winds, downpours of rain, some hail, and snow in the mountain areas left everything sopping wet and cold. But Bai Yun woke up Sunday morning ready to breed. And as always, our trusty male Gao Gao was up to the job.

The exhibits were slick with mud and water, and Bai Yun seemed a little less cooperative than usual. Gao Gao had to convince her to drop her shoulders to the ground to allow him to get the best positioning. Bai Yun weighs 231 pounds (105 kilograms), and Gao Gao is a mere 163 pounds (74 kilos) by comparison, so “convincing” involved a lot of nibbling on her shoulders and pulling at her midsection to get her just right.

Fortunately, he succeeded in his endeavors, and at 8:04 Sunday morning, we had our first copulation of 2012. It’s possible that more of these will follow. Ideally, we would like to get one or two more breedings out of this pair today to make this season a success. Even if the weather remains a challenge, Gao Gao has proven that stormy conditions will not stay him from the swift completion of his appointed duties.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Getting to Know You, Again.

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82

Getting to Know You, Again

By
Suzanne Hall
– March 13, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Pandas, Uncategorized

Bai Yun's not interested in food these days!

Giant panda Bai Yun continues to march through estrus. Her rate of scent marking has increased from its baseline of roughly .08 bouts per hour to a whopping 43 bouts per hour this morning. She is walking through water quite a bit, a behavior that likely aids in scent dispersal, as her drippy fur leaves a trail of wet odor while she motors about. She continues to ignore her bamboo and even spit yams back at the keepers during a hearing study trial today. She’s fussy, and squirmy, and acting totally normal for a female in estrus.

On the physiological front, she has also given signs of her status. Her genitalia have enlarged in size and changed color. Swabs of her reproductive tract indicate that its composition of cells is changing in a manner consistent with an approaching breeding window. We are running hormone samples when we can get them, but so far today Bai Yun hasn’t given us enough urine to submit something to our lab.

We were thinking we might need to open the howdy gate between our adults in a few days, in anticipation of a breeding window. However, this morning Bai Yun could hear Gao Gao bleating on the other side of the wall between them. She was very attentive to his calls, and she even bleated back several times. It’s unusual for her to be bleating already, her “advertising stage,” remember? She should be silently marking. But no, she was clearly telling us this morning that she was ready to get reacquainted with her mate.

In response, this afternoon we opened the howdy gate for visual access. Gao Gao, as anticipated, was happy to check out the view, and several times he quietly approached while Bai Yun was nearby. For her part, our matriarch sat in close proximity to the gate for the better part of half an hour. She sent him mixed signals: a chirp (which says “come hither”) followed by a bark (which means “stay away”). Sometimes she sat still looking at him; sometimes, she charged the gate. Back and forth she went between the vocalizations. When she chirped, Gao Gao would stay close, sniffing at her and the gate. When she barked, he would leave, but only for a little while. He knows not to be gone too long.

In the coming days, Bai Yun’s barks and ambivalence will give way to more solicitous behavior. Gao Gao will help us keep track of her change of status with his behavior. Follow along on the Panda Cam, and see if you can see that change yourself. We’re looking for rear-present, tail-up behavior on her part. With him, we are looking for a consistent presence at the gate, even pulling at the gate when she is near. When she starts backing into that gate with her tail raised, you’ll know it’s time.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Who You Calling Old?

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43

Who You Calling Old?

By
Suzanne Hall
– March 12, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Pandas, Uncategorized

Bai Yun was more interested in eating a few months ago.

Giant panda Bai Yun is getting along in years, now 20 years old and on the tail-end of the known breeding spectrum for giant pandas. We’ve been telling you for some time that we don’t know what effect her age might have on the ability for her to breed and produce a cub in 2012. Apparently, Bai Yun did not get the uncertainty memo, because she is now showing strong signs of estrus.

For a few weeks, she has been off her regular bamboo-feeding pattern. In the last few days, her bamboo consumption has dropped precipitously. In addition, she has kicked into high gear with scent marking and restless locomotion. When I observed her this morning, she was scent marking at a rate of once per minute when awake. Considering that a typical non-estrus day might have one or two scent marks in 24 hours, this is a pretty significant increase.

Our research on the typical behavioral expression of estrus has shown that a female panda begins by increasing her rate of scent marking and then decelerates marking before becoming vocal. That is to say: first she focuses on laying down scent along her wandering path to advertise her condition to males that might wander across her home range. Then, when she is ready to mate, she begins to call the male(s), which start tracking her closely once they read her chemical messages.

I didn’t hear any vocalizations from Bai Yun this morning, but that isn’t surprising. She’s still in the advertising stage. You can see her in relatively constant motion throughout the day as she traverses her exhibit laying down scent. One byproduct: with all her restless energy and decrease in feeding, we can expect to see a slight decrease in her weight over the next few weeks. Not to worry: after her hormones settle back down, she will focus on packing on the pounds she loses during estrus.

A note about timing: Bai Yun hasn’t had a breeding date in March since 2003. However, she is clearly on track to peak this month. We are still not certain we will accomplish a breeding with our older pair, but I can say that even Gao Gao seems ready to go, with increased scent marking and restlessness characteristic of a male in rut. All signs point to a likely pairing, and well before April.

So Bai Yun is pushing the boundaries. Although her behavior thus far doesn’t guarantee a breeding or a pregnancy or a live birth, the age factor hasn’t stopped her from having a strong, early estrus. Perhaps her long years of great nutritional and veterinary care are paying off. Is Bai Yun younger than her calendar years? Who can say? Cast your bets.

Just don’t call her old.

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Pandas Play Peek-a-boo.

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43

Pandas Play Peek-a-boo

By
Suzanne Hall
– February 21, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Yun Zi

Many of our blog readers have commented in recent weeks that they are concerned that they haven’t seen giant panda Yun Zi on Panda Cam or in person. Some have expressed concern about his apparent disappearance. I thought I would take a moment to explain some of the factors contributing to his absence and to reassure you that Yun Zi is just fine.

As you know, the San Diego Zoo has new HD cameras that have vastly improved your Panda Cam viewing experience. No more grainy, foggy, or blurry images online. Instead, we have clear, enlarged images that help you get a better feel for the pandas and their enclosures. However, not every one of our facility’s 30-odd cameras was replaced with the HD system. Several of our areas are still serviced by our old, standard cameras. However, the old system is not compatible with our new HD service. That means that when a bear is in an area with an old camera, he or she will not be visible on the Panda Cam.

So why not simply rotate a bear outside where he is accessible both to the visiting public and the Panda Cam? We would do that, under typical circumstances. However, we have a few other factors at play that are influencing our decisions about panda placement. For one, the panda gift shop is being rebuilt. During the construction, we are watching the bears very closely to document their response to this disturbance and ensure the welfare of our animals throughout the process. We are in a current holding pattern of minimizing all other transitions for the bears to further reduce any potential stressors. That means we are keeping animal rotations to an absolute minimum so long as the bears seem comfortable.

We are also creeping close to the breeding season for our adults. The main viewing exhibits are the home base for Bai Yun and Gao Gao once estrus begins, and the place where any breeding would occur if the two were inclined to copulate. Bai Yun has been doing a little scent marking lately, although she is likely weeks away from beginning her estrus. Even so, this is just another factor in play when we make determinations about which bear will be in any given spot on any given day.

Currently, Yun Zi is being housed in an area with the old cameras, which is why you haven’t seen him. He spends his days with access to behind-the-scenes bedrooms and off-exhibit outdoor areas, including our “classroom” exhibits. If he is high in one of his trees, a Zoo guest can catch a glimpse of him when strolling past the facility or riding the moving walkway to the landing near Owens Aviary. If Yun Zi is on the ground or in his bedroom, all areas fitted with older cameras, he is not visible to the public.

But even when he is out of sight, he is clearly not out of mind for our readers. You’ll have to be content to know that we are taking great care of our young male, and he is happy and healthy and content. Soon enough, when the time is right, he’ll be back in view in the exhibits. And if Bai Yun mates again this spring, she will eventually be pulled off exhibit for an extended period as we watch her for signs of pregnancy. Yun Zi and Gao Gao will be our panda ambassadors, but many will ask: when is Bai Yun coming back on exhibit?

Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Changes for Gao Gao.

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