Can’t wait until May 23 for the grand opening? Want some Elephant Odyssey fun in your own home or office?

Hard to believe, but the Web team at the San Diego Zoo has outdone themselves yet again. Elephant Odyssey.com has an interactive map, videos, and information on the animals of the Pleistocene and the animals of today! Heck, there’s even a page where you can read up on the individual elephants that will live there.

Still not enough for you? Well, now there’s a fun computer game, too: Elephant Odyssey: The Game! It just launched this week and is already causing people to lose track of time (due to playing it and having fun) as they wander back in time through the Pleistocene epoch.
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Gibbons are monogamous and, unlike most primates, they maintain a matriarchal society. The natural living arrangements for gibbons are a monogamous pair and their young offspring. When the offspring are mature, they will take cues from their parents and leave in search of starting their own family. The stronger the family bond is between the parents and their young, the more confident they are. They will be more vocal, more defensive of their territory, and more protective of their young. This is reflective of a strong, thriving family of gibbons.
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I know it has been a while since I have corresponded here on the blog. However, it is nothing to worry about, my lack of writing time is all for a good reason! (Read Rick’s previous blog, Statue Tour: Educating Kids, Wowing Adults.) Since returning from the Statue Tour a few weeks ago, I have been very busy doing interviews on radio, television, and with print media. There was even a day where I gave a presentation during a luncheon and did media interviews before and after at a different location within the Zoo. Whew, that was a eventful day! Yesterday was no different, as I was on local television and national radio all within a couple of hours and all before it was 10:30 a.m.!
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After all the excitement of last week’s mating season here at the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station, you would think that we, and the pandas, would be settling into a nice, regular routine. But no, these bears are keeping us on our toes, as is everything else around here.

Bai Yun and Gao Gao are still in the main viewing area and back to their usual eat-and-sleep schedule (as regular as that can be with unpredictable animals). It’s obvious that mating season is well and truly over, for Bai and Gao’s interest has waned visibly. We are expecting to begin rotating pandas, with Bai Yun eventually going into seclusion in the back area later this spring or early summer, but the protocol for that has not been determined. That may be decided later this week with the actual rotation beginning somewhat later; as always, these decisions are made by the research and animal care teams and can change without notice, so keep watching Panda Cam and see if you can determine when the switches are made.
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The Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (KBCC) welcomed visitors on December 6, 2008, to its annual open house. Over 80 people came to see some of the most endangered birds in the world and learn about our role in their recovery efforts.

The visitors learned from the staff about the main problems that are affecting the wild populations of endemic Hawaiian birds. These are introduced predators (mongoose, rats), introduced diseases (pox, malaria), and habitat degradation/loss (much from feral sheep, goats, and pigs). (more…)

It is an exciting time to be a part of the San Diego Zoo! Whether you are an employee, a Zoo member, or a guest, everyone is talking about the future opening of Elephant Odyssey, the Zoo’s newest exhibit. With just under two months before the grand opening, much is being done to prepare and train the elephants for their relocation.

Many people ask, “Why can’t we simply walk the elephants to their new exhibit?”
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A second breeding occurred this morning, April 15, between the beautiful Bai Yun and Gao Gao the Great at the Giant Panda Research Station. [The first happened last night at 5:16.] The main viewing area was, of course, closed to the public to allow the pandas and researchers the quiet and time they needed, as it has been since yesterday’ s mating bout. Zhen Zhen has been in the alternate “classroom” exhibit for visitors, but the excitement has been all about the adults.
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It is hard to believe that the opening of Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo is just around the corner. All of the elephant keepers are very excited about moving into our new digs! But before that happens, there are several things that need to be accomplished first. One of those is getting full physicals on all three of the elephants at the Zoo so we can have baseline data on them. This includes: eye and mouth exams, urine and blood tests, fecals, TB tests, and full-body exams. As keepers, it is our responsibility to train the elephants to participate in all of these behaviors so we don’t have to immobilize them.
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You have all done great with your ideas for reducing your carbon footprints! (See comments posted in Polar Bear Anniversary and The Polar Bear World.) And you’ve posed so many questions, I’ll try to answer some of them here.

First, let’s talk about polar bear fur. Polar bears are very clean bears! Even in the wild they use snow, kelp, and brush to clean their fur. Here in San Diego they do jump in the pools and then use the mulch to dry off. They also lick their paws and legs to clean them. Often you will see them rubbing their faces and rubbing against the sides of the pool for cleaning. Their fur is a bit coarse and long on the outer, or guard hair, layer. The fur underneath is soft and wooly.
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Note from Public Relations: Guest access to the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station is expected to be interrupted over the next few days as female Bai Yun and male Gao Gao are introduced for breeding. Giant panda adults are solitary, normally coming together for a few days each year for breeding. Animal care staff have been closely monitoring Bai Yun and Gao Gao, observing behaviors, vocalizations and physical signs that indicate that the female will be receptive to the male. On the afternoon of April 14, the viewing area was closed as breeding behavior escalated and possible introduction of the two adults was considered. In order to ensure that there are no distractions that might interrupt the interaction of the rare pair, the panda viewing area has been closed to guests.

Zoo officials expect that guest viewing at the Station will be interrupted over the next few days. Viewing of Panda Cam may also be interrupted as staff focus their efforts on monitoring the interaction directly and are not available to manage Panda Cam views for online guests.

Things are progressing here at the Giant Panda Research Station at the San Diego Zoo in many ways. As of April 12, Bai Yun and Gao Gao swapped exhibits. This involves releasing them into one anothers’ enclosures for olfactory exploration and scent marking. As Bai Yun is showing increasing signs of readiness for mating, the door to the introduction area, or “howdy door,” was opened between the exhibits April 13, and Gao lost no time in taking up his usual spot in the tunnel-way inself, not visible to the guests, usually, but straight line-of-sight on Bai, the most important thing. A knowing guest described him as “keeping vigil,” an excellent description of his tendency to plant himself in there for naps, scent-marking, vocalizing, even eating, so as not to give up his place of priority near Bai Yun. We’ve seen this in previous years; what was pretty amazing to me was the speed with which he entered the area and his memory of this from past mating seasons.
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