Yes, another semester of the San Diego Zoo’s Girls In Science (GIS) program has just started up, and despite the unusually cold weather here in San Diego (ice on the windshield this morning), the girls are ready to get started!
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Today our sun bear cub is 117 days old. He is growing and changing rapidly, and is proving to be an amusing and inquisitive little creature. (See Suzanne’s previous blog, It’s a Sun Bear Boy.)
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Whew, where have the past 17 months gone? It just seems like yesterday we were on pins and needles waiting for this tiny cub to be born. Here we are now, waiting for the next step in Su Lin’s life, weaning from her mother, Bai Yun.
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Being a gardener at the San Diego Zoo has many responsibilities that a gardener anywhere would have, like pruning hedges and fertilizing trees. What makes being a gardener here so much more rewarding than elsewhere is the many unusual jobs in which we get to be involved. Planting flora from all over the world to create exotic environments at the Zoo is one example. Another might be researching what kind of plants can be used in a primate exhibit. One exciting project we started recently was very unusual and struck me as a great topic for a blog. The experiment involves growing the plant that chocolate comes from, a very tropical plant in our mild, non-tropical climate.
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I’m so excited to finally bring you news about Condor #134, a.k.a. ” Harry”! You may recall the adult male condor that was discovered on the floor of the Grand Canyon last May. The bird was very sick and near death due to lead poisoning, but swift action and cooperation between Phoenix Zoo veterinarians, Wild Animal Park veterinarians, and the Park’s bird department lead to a life-saving transfusion (see Valerie’s blog, Harry the Condor’s Progress). As I left the story some months ago, he was on his way to a complete recovery, but not completely ” out of the woods” yet. There have been many inquiries since about his progress, so here’s the continuation of Harry’s story…
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Change is in the air at the Giant Panda Research Station! The time has come to facilitate the weaning of 17-month old Su Lin from her mother, Bai Yun. Su Lin has shown us in recent months that she has the skills to consume the quantities of bamboo and vegetables necessary to sustain her nutritionally. She has developed a relationship with the keepers that will provide her with some social interaction once her mother is no longer a part of her life. She may not know it yet, but she is ready to move into the next phase of her life: juvenile independence.
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Winter on the Big Island of Hawaii means rain, rain, and more rain for most people, but for the biologists of the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (KBCC) it means nene breeding! Dedicated mating pairs of nene return to the KBCC year after year to establish their nests, incubate their eggs, and hatch their goslings. On the slopes of Mauna Loa, the nene enjoy 155 acres (63 hectares) of predator-controlled land at the KBCC, filled with native vegetation and watchful aviculturists.
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Ellie recalls the first 10 years of giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous blog, The Panda Decade, Part 4.

As August 2000 arrived, the planning began for Hua Mei to celebrate her first birthday! It became an event, with specially crafted ice, bamboo, and vegetable cakes made by the San Diego Zoo’s Forage Warehouse staff; even the carillon in nearby Balboa Park played ” Happy Birthday” just for her. A giant birthday card was available for guests to sign and her many, many came to wish her well.
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This time of year, mid to late winter, is an unusual time for a plant family to put on its greatest show. When most of the country is supposed to be freezing and under snow, Southern California is in the midst of one of its spectacular blooming shows! Aloes, which are mainly from southern Africa, have adapted very well to this similar-type climate and put on their flower show in a riotous act of colors. They bloom typically from late winter to late spring, while some aloes are in bloom sometime every month of the year. The oranges and reds that aloes are known for are sometimes overshadowed by blooms of white and scarlet, yellow and green, to the multiple shades of warm hues. All combined in our garden settings, they present a color spectacular. The main African collection site, across from the Veldt exhibit on the San Diego Zoo’s Horn & Hoof Mesa, has the highest concentration of blooming aloes this time of year. (A fierce aloe Aloe ferox is pictured.)
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I enjoy watching the pandas eat. They get so involved in their food, just like a lot of us! Each panda here at the San Diego Zoo has its own eating habits. Bai Yun uses her right paw to eat most of the time, unless she is selecting bamboo from the bottom of the pile–then she uses both paws to dig through the bamboo to her favorite species. She does not spend quite as many hours eating as Gao Gao (pictured), who seems to be a south paw and seldom uses his right one unless he is really searching the pile of bamboo for the best; he always eats his favorite first! Mei Sheng favors his right paw and sticks to that most of the time. He loves to eat and will spend hours eating, just like his father, Gao Gao.
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