Things Are Progressing…
Posted at 12:58 pm April 11, 2007 by Ellie Rosenbaum…slowly at the Giant Panda Research Station as we await an upcoming mating season. In preparation for summer, the exhibits have been tilled, refreshed, and reseeded with fresh grass seed, all in the very early mornings before Bai Yun and Gao Gao come out for their breakfast. And still we watch and wait.
Meanwhile, in the off-exhibit areas, “the kids” (subadults Su Lin and Mei Sheng) are doing quite well. Su often sleeps in the Chinese elm tree, above the fence line but hard to see now that spring is here and the tree has its new leaves. Sheng tends to make a late-morning appearance as the keepers begin to prepare the bamboo for a later feeding, climbing into the still-bare poplar trees to the right of the Research Station, climbing as high as 50 feet to check out the behind-the-scenes activity. When Su Lin is in her tree, Sheng will often vocalize to her, and she may awaken and respond. (Notice the word “may.” They are living National Treasures of China, after all, and research subjects here. They are never forced to do anything!)
As spring progresses, we’ll try to keep you all up to date.
Ellie Rosenbaum is an educator and panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.
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April 11th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
It’s Wednesday lunch time and Bai Yun is already back in her usual exhibit. How often are they going to be switched now?
April 11th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Thanks for the update Ellie. From daily views of Bai and Gao it appears that they are in a groove of eat, sleep, walk around, eat, sleep, etc. They don’t seem to be looking for as much adventure as climbing trees or communicating with another panda. At the rate Bai has been eating lately, it should be helping bulk up her body weight, as much as bamboo can anyway.
Interesting that it is Sheng that initiates the communication with Su. Since he has always been more sociable, I guess it is logical that he would seek her out. She has mostly been a loner except when she wanted to nurse, or when she found herself alone in the exhibit after the initial separation. She and Tai Shan have proved all of us doubters wrong, and you experts right. They are both very well adjusted, hungry, and healthy adolescent pandas. Each has adapted to life on their own in their own way, and seems unfazed by what is going on around them. She perches in her tree for her admirers to squint at, and he poses himself next to the viewing glass and blissfully eats or sleeps. Yesterday he was standing right up against the glass, and glass was all that separated him from his adoring public. He just stood and sniffed, and seemed to be putting on quite a show for the visitors. I don’t recall him being such a ham for visitors like Sheng was. He never seemed to notice humans were watching before. He ignores them now and goes on posing as he wishes.
Since Sheng is in the back yard off exhibit and can’t be seen by humans, other than keepers and staff, he seems to have gravitated to communicating with SU and climbing his tree to have a look around instead. It must be quite a sight to see two young pandas high up in trees at the same time. I wish that some photos of them could be displayed somewhere on the website. I have seen the one of Su but not one of Mei or them together. Now that the foliage is coming out it will be very hard to ” see” them through the leaves.
We are patiently waiting to hear news of Bai and Gao having social contact. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were let out in the same yard again today. Probably because he and she needed practice with natural mating. He sure was one determined dude. Once again she showed her very patient side and let him climb all over her. Finally they used the hose to cool them down and they separated for a few hours. Later in the day they were out peacefully eating bamboo side by side. Quite a sight.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Can’t we have some pictures?
April 11th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Margaret, I too saw Mei Xiang and Tian in the heat of the moment. Colour me thoroughly confused.
My immediate reaction is, how will this affect her possible pregnancy by Gao Gao? With her being so receptive to Tian (estrus?), does this mean that the AI performed last week may not have ” taken” ? Would it be possible for her to be pregnant with a cub by both father bears, as is the case with cats having kittens by mutliple fathers? Just as we find out the paternity of one baby (Dannielynn Smith), now we may have yet another mystery daddy case to sleuth out!
April 12th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Is there any reason why the siblings cannot be put in the same exhibit so they have someone to play with?
April 12th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Since we learned that Gao Gao might be the father of our next panda cub at the NZ, we would love to see more pictures of him and get more information about him.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:34 am
our local tv station wabc did a piece about pandas and the Boo they eat and how fussy some are from day to day what variety they like to eat. It featured our own madame Bai and Su lin in a earlier day also Tai and Lun Lun and baby Mei Lan what a joy to see them on tv. I never realized what a big thing it is to harvest and store the Boo at the right temp. But what really pleases me is the plight of the pandas being brought to people by the media, Mei Xaing being inseminated was also shown the other day, what a great way to urge people into conservation
April 12th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Especially great camera work yesterday – a big T H A N K Y O U to the Meerkat(s) responsible for that. Question: What’s up with the walking through water as estrus nears? Seems like an unusual behavior to me. Do their feet get hot and this is a way to cool them off??!! Enquiring minds want to know.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Thank you for the exciting panda news, Ellie. I just had a glimpse at the NZ webcams and an excellent view of both Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. They both seemed to be quite restless, walking backwards and forwards and he sniffing her frequently. They appeared to be ” quite fond of each other” , in human terms. Unfortunately after a few minutes of watching the keeper separated them again. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Bai Yun will be ready for Gao Gao in the not too distant future. Thanks for bringing the exciting panda world close to all of us.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Water play, walking through the water, or standing and splashing is one of the behaviors that increase as a female panda approaches estrus. As a wet dog smells ” doggier,” a wet female panda approaching estrus smells, well,… more like who and what she is. Remember that in the wild she has to make her presence and potential receptive status known to males who may be a mile or more away from her for most of the year. This is the same rationale for a female panda’s increase in scent-mark frequency as her estrus peaks.
Think of water play as ” Eau d’Estrus” – cologne vs. the more intense perfume of scent-marking!
April 13th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Ah… interesting. I just assumed that her interest in water was because she was having some sort of ” hot flash” – silly me. Now I understand. Instead of humans bathing to smell ” less human” so to speak – the panda baths to smell ” more panday” . Fastinating. I hope that whatever Bai is doing – that Gao Gao is paying attention. Oh and Gao, don’t forget to bring some flowers when you come a calling… or at least some fresh bamboo ; )
April 29th, 2007 at 11:10 am
We visited San Diego Zoo recently on a trip from London, UK. We were very lucky and managed to see all 4 pandas! I was reading the information boards and heard a rustling noise above me looked up and there was Sheng up his tree. We did the trip on the sky ride which goes over the panda enlosures and saw Su roaming around. During our 2 week trip we visited 3 times and saw at least 3 pandas each vist. If you visit it really is worth sitting in the eating area and watching the trees! After a week in Palm Springs we are now back home in the UK and watching the web cams, not the same!