Keeper Questions: Panda Behavior
Posted at 12:19 pm June 25, 2009 by Juli Borowski
Gao Gao
It seems that our Panda Cam provides not only entertainment but a chance for our viewers to study panda behavior and to wonder where some of the pandas’ actions come from. Well, wonder no more! Part of a keeper’s job is to learn about and to educate others on the animals’ natural and zoo behaviors. Animal behavior is one of my favorite topics; it’s a big part of why I decided to become a zookeeper in the first place, and I’d be happy to enlighten you on the subject.
If you’ve ever visited the pandas at the San Diego Zoo, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the “Quiet Zone” signs that are around the viewing area. Visitors are not encouraged to call to the pandas or to make sudden, loud noises. At the same time, you may notice that we have full-time panda narrators who speak into a microphone, yet the pandas don’t seem to care about that noise. Nor do they jump or behave erratically when a keeper loudly calls their name or works with a hose, rake, or other noisy tools in and around their living space. The pandas constantly hear noises like the voices of narrators and the various sounds of a keeper working. In other words, they’ve become habituated to the noises that surround them. They no longer notice those noises, just as a person living in an airport’s flight path becomes habituated to airplane noise when they’re at home. It is the loud, unexpected, and unfamiliar noises that startle them.
Pandas live independently throughout their entire lives. Their independence has been shaped over thousands of years by a number of factors and may be one reason for their sensitivity. Without other pandas around, they have to rely solely on themselves for protection. However, because bamboo is a food source that is very low in nutritional value, pandas are also very sedentary by nature. Most of their time is spent either eating or sleeping. As sedentary, independent animals, being able to hear on-coming danger and being able to react quickly (what appears to us as “jumpy” or “sensitive”) is important for survival.
So, why do the pandas respond to their keeper’s voice but don’t even turn their heads when a stranger calls to them? The answer is that they’re trained to respond to a keeper’s voice. The keeper’s voice has meaning to the pandas: when they’re called, they will receive attention, praise, or yummy treats. Visitors can talk quietly and calmly in the viewing area (a noise that the pandas have become habituated to), and some may call a panda’s name, but that voice is not one that has meaning to the pandas.
Part of a keeper’s job is to train the pandas to respond to a number of cues. One behavior, which is often the first to be trained, is “shifting,” or walking through a door into the bedroom or holding area. When I stand behind a panda’s enclosure, call his or her name, and open the door to their bedroom, the panda will unfold him or herself from whatever crazy position they were sleeping in, climb down the tree, and walk calmly into the bedroom, where they will receive praise and treats for that correct response.
Although this sounds straightforward, it is a trained, unnatural behavior for a panda. For instance, when Zhen Zhen was first separated from Bai Yun, she preferred to stay in her sleeping tree, where she felt safe, instead of walking into the unknown. So, when we made it a requirement for her to “shift” into the bedroom when we came in to clean, we did it in baby steps: we’d call her name, praise her for paying attention, praise her for starting to climb down the tree, praise her for coming up to us, etc. Eventually, she learned that responding to a keeper calling her name meant a food reward or praise, but she will most likely ignore a stranger’s call.
Keepers need to monitor their animals’ physical well-being by providing proper nutrition, but it is also important for us to monitor their cognitive well-being. We do this by providing enrichment. Enrichment may be a toy, novel food item, a new scent, or something interesting to look at. It’s a way for keepers to encourage behaviors that may come naturally to the animal’s wild counterpart but may be infrequent in a zoo animal. For example, when you’re at the San Diego Zoo and you see a keeper hiding treats all over the exhibit instead of just putting them in a pile or bowl, it is a form of enrichment called “scatter feeding.” It encourages the animal to use its sense of smell and its sight to find its food. The sense of smell is highly pronounced in carnivores, and keepers will frequently give their animals new and interesting scents to explore. The stronger the scent, the more our bears seem to respond to it. They like strong-smelling colognes, chili powder, cinnamon, lavender, and pine, just to name a few.
I wish I could answer all of your questions at once; there were many about animal management and husbandry. I hope to broach this subject in a future entry. Stay tuned and don’t be afraid to pick my brain!
Juli Borowski is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
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June 25th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Juli….you are a veritable treasure trove of panda knowledge! Thank you for all the really interesting information. I look forward to your next posting!!!
I also love the picture of my dear Gao Gao!!!!
June 25th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
WOW, Juli what a great blog, a wealth of information. I am coming in Nov and hope I get to see you at the panda exhibit. It seems strange that chili power is something of interest. I read that in ZA that Lun Lun wasn’t interested in a certain smell that Yang Yang liked but the baby rubbed it on himself and then Lun smelled it and grabbed him any rubbed him on herself. Big Daddy doing his favorite thing, great pic.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi, Juli–I noticed Zhen Zhen playing with a bag with something in it that made her very happy this afternoon. She was somersaulting and tumbling around, which I’ve hardly ever seen. What was in her bag that she liked so much?
I’ve also read in other blogs that Bai Yun responds to 17 commands. Can you give us an idea what those are–i guess we know about “shift” and “you’re having an ultrasound” but what are the others. I also think some of the commands are made with a “clicker”–is this a special item or something like a toy cricket?
Thanks for your info!
June 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Thank you Juli for all the great info. and Gao is sooooo cute.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Thanks, Juli. You are most kind to take time out of your busy day to answer the questions of the ever-curious about all things panda. This is off-topic but I am going to post here anyway. Is there any news about Chinook and a possible polar pregnancy? As I read about the preparations underway in the event that Bai Yun might be pregnant, I wondered what was happening over in the Polar Plunge? I wondered if Chinook would be trained for an ultrasound as Bai has been and if there were any plans for a cam in the den? I am thinking probably not, since this would be a 1st pregnancy for Chinook (and possibly a 1st polar bear birth for SDZ) but one can always hope. I know the polars aren’t your charges, Juli but possibly you or the moderator might drop a hint for a blog? Thanks!!!
Moderator’s note: Our polar bear keeper JoAnne Simerson promises a post in a few days.
June 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I never knew that being a Zoo Keeper was so involved.
June 25th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Juli, thank you so much for all your information. It sure makes it easier for all of us Pandaholics to understand things.
Now on another note, please pass on a BIG thank you to everyone at the San Diego Zoo for sending “Bundaleer the Koala” to us here in the Tampa area. He will be going on exhibit next Monday at our Lowry Park Zoo and we can’t wait to see him.
Donna in Port Richey, Fl
Moderator’s note: We’ll pass the thanks on to our koala keepers!
June 25th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Great update Julie
Before you arrived….this was, I think, the last week Bai and Zhen were together in Feb. 2009, Zhen decided she was not going to get out of the tree in Camera 3 area at lunch time. We were so fortunate to be there
One of the keepers had to come out to entice ‘Miss Star’ to come down so that the area could be prepared for lunch. Bai had left the exhibit and was waiting patiently. In the end, the keeper fed treats to Zhen the intrepid as she hung on a branch while other keepers spruced up the exhibit. You are going to have so much FUN in Panda Canyon 
Thanks!
To Julie and Dad#6: I want you to know that I am so tickled by the responses you make/receive from Dad. I, and am sure others who had/have Dads who enjoyed/enjoy their daughters careers are reminded of their own fathers
June 25th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Thanks so much for these Keeper Question blogs! Somehow I feel more involved with our fuzzy friends and the SDZ staff to be able to communicate directly. No doubt we’ll have some silly questions (especially me), but it’s a great way to learn about our favorite species.
I live only about 40 miles north of the zoo, in Oceanside, but I’m a full-time family caregiver so I rarely get out of the house. (So near and yet so far.) This blog makes me feel a real connection to the zoo.
Thanks for all your wonderful work, and for putting up with us!
June 26th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Juli, hello again. I will look forward to future posts. As I assured you after your initial post, when the door is opened, the ever-thirsty-for-pandaknowledge bloggers will, indeed, pick your brain. That is the reason I read this page every day that I can…..searching for those answers. I usually don’t even need to ask my question, as there is always someone who asks before me. Thank you for your knowledge and your passionate devotion to the animal kingdom, especially these wonderful Giant Pandas. Now, I would like to ask, what is your impression of all of us, who are eternally addicted to these wonderful creatures, and cannot stop asking about them?
June 26th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Thanks for keeping us informed Juli.
It is a great afternoon for panda viewing. Su Lin’s fans are snapping away with their cameras. It was hard to spot her at first from the sun angle on the Panda Cam, but finally saw her near the tree house.
Someone at NZP is enjoying a large frozen fruit treat while another panda there is asleep.
Lun Lun was stretched out ready to take a nap when Xi Lan came down for a drink. She cuddled him a bit and then let him drink. Finally she rolled on her side so she could nap while he nursed. She must be very sleepy on this very hot humid afternoon in the Southeast US. It is definitely napping weather when possible. The tiger was zonked out on the side of the moat in the grass.
I read that part of Asia Trail at NZP is closed indefinitely. It is the part that one normally uses to get inside so they must be rerouting people because you can see crowds inside at the viewing windows. Their Giant Salamander died over the winter, so maybe they are doing some refurbishing to that exhibit in preparation for some changes in the fall.
I am happy for the SDZ pandas that they can stay cool outdoors with their shade trees and mister and don’t have to go inside much and can continue to be easily seen by their fans and the panda cams.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Once again I am reminded that a mammal in essence is a mammal is a mammal. Juli you so eloquently described the necessity for training and enrichment. We humans do that with our children of course, or we should. But also the research in aging increasingly points to a continuous interest and curiosity (enrichment) in life and learning and reasonable physical activity (in my case definitely training I am sorry to say) as a deterrent to not only physical but also mental disease in old age. All this supported by not only an increase in life-span in humans, but also in that of zoo animals and our house pets. With, unfortunately, the same diseases of aging in most mammals. In my next life I am going to come back as a fish, they don’t age as we define it. Of course I’ll end up in somebody’s oven….LOL
June 26th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Hi! Su Lin in her pool splashing water on herself and cooling off!! How precious is that? That’s the first time I have seen any of the pandas in their water pool just sitting and splashing, and seeing Su Lin doing it got me smiling—-:D! This was about 7:25pm EDT my time!
Luv ya, Su Lin!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
June 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Juli – wow, thanks for answering so many questions we have about our beloved pandas – & for reminding us how many years they’ve roamed the earth:) It’s up to us to save this beautiful animal.
Dad is sure proud of his keeper:)
ZA reported today our Lani now weighs 194 pounds – she is going to be a BIG PANDA like her pappa Yang & mom Lun Lun
June 27th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Juli, I really learned a lot reading your post. What’s more, unlike school, it’s much more interesting!
Marion #12, I want to come back as a cat, as long as I belong to someone like me of course!
I was watching Xi Lan and Lun Lun on Friday and for once caught them playing. Lun Lun got up and walked away with Xi Lan attached to her tail end by his teeth, and he wasn’t going to let go! Lun climbed on the trampoline (as I call it – mmmm bouncing pandas, now there’s a thought) and then got pulled off. They continued to play for ages like that.
I’ve noticed that Zhen Zhen likes to come outside for a picnic during the night, even sleeping outside. I’ve seen the others do this, but ZZ does it more.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Sun., 6/28/2009, 11amPDT (2pm EDT); Great close up of ZZ laying down and relaxing in her favorite spot. She even yawned which made me yawn right back! Great cam shot, meerkats!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
July 4th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
My 5 year old son wants to know if Gao can come to the beach with us when we go to San Diego this August.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Tonymo, that is so sweet. I wonder what pandas would think of sand?
July 6th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Juli,
Thanks for answering one of my questions. lol And here I thought we could talk to them and they would understand us.
Silly me. I am happy to see The Tians interacting every morning again, the playful bouts make me laugh!
July 7th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I aslo read about Hui on pandas live on and I clicked on that flickr link for anita`remember to forget and she has photos from 2 months of Mei Sheng from a visit there!!! Lots of photos of Mei Sheng and Hui Mei from before as well..well worth a visit if you’d like to see their home!
August 4th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Hi, although I am still young, I was wondering if you could tell us your college degrees/experience and field to be a panda zookeeper? I would love to know… thanks!