For those of you who have actually seen the pandas in person when they first start to climb, you know how they can take some trees without difficulty, and some are a little more challenging. Each cub born at the San Diego Zoo has gone through ups and downs when it comes to climbing trees, literally. A cub’s first teacher is, of course, Mom, and here we have Bai Yun. There is a reason her name translates to “white cloud”: she is an excellent climber, and as a young cub she would spend most of her time up the trees.
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As fall has come, so has quiet to the Conrad Prebys Polar Bear Plunge. The management yard is being well used by Chinook. She certainly has her routine down: greet Tatqiq and Kalluk over the moat, find treats, eat treats, dip in pool, roll in dirt, completely cover entire body except for the white fur around eyes, go inside and see what my keeper is up to. Oh, too bad the nice clean bedrooms are now covered with muddy paw prints! Chinook really has perfected the art of the dirt roll! Still no confirmation of pregnancy, but also no behavioral change to indicate she is not pregnant. Our fingers are still tightly crossed.
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I lived for more than 10 years without a pet until I got my cat, Austin, two years ago. All of my “cat lady” tendencies that were dormant for all those years resurfaced. I’ll tell you stories about Austin like parents talk about their human children.

But now I can tell you stories about a panda, as if he were my own. Sure, I didn’t get to hold him or touch him, or even get close enough for his eyes to focus on me. But sitting in on the 11th exam of our panda cub was a great experience!
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In my blog post about my time as a keeper (see Pandas: From Both Sides), I had mentioned that Zhen Zhen exhibited some behaviors that were very similar to her father, Gao Gao, and she’s still surprising me. Typical behaviors that I’ve seen are mainly shown right around when she’s about to be fed: when the keepers call her to come inside, she won’t come right in; most of the time she’ll do another lap around her enclosure and then make her way into her bedroom. And then there are her eating habits: she’ll move bamboo far away from where it is put down, and once she’s comfortable she won’t move for anyone.
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The San Diego Zoo’s polar bear Chinook is keeping us all on the edge of our seats. As we move deeper into November, we are yet to see any definitive behavioral or physiological changes that would tell us that Chinook is pregnant…or that she’s not pregnant! With each passing day, we continue to document what she’s doing and how she’s doing it. Chinook’s den is ready, and we are listening to her and providing her with whatever she needs.
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Ron is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, working with Polar Bears International. Read his previous post, Reaching Out for Polar Bears.

What I want to talk about to today is hope—hope for conservation, and hope for our planet even though it is facing unprecedented environmental challenges. I’m in Churchill in Manitoba, Canada, working with friends and collaborators at Polar Bears International. It’s a surreal experience going out on the Tundra Buggies and seeing wild polar bears. But underneath this joyful experience there is also sadness, because I know that this “polar bear capital” may one day have no polar bears. By now, most of us know that the polar bears are losing their sea-ice habitat and here, at the southern end of their range, they will disappear first. We’ve already lost almost a quarter of them in the past 15 years. In another 15, there may be no polar bears left in Churchill.
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Some of you have been asking about the panda cub’s vocalizations. You have wondered if he is loud, protesting mother’s grooming or nibbling activities. Some of you have expressed concern about the fact that Bai Yun is so frequently – and so long – away from the den these days. In fact, Bai Yun’s den departures and the cub’s vocal pattern are interrelated. Let me explain…
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This guy, he’s a heartbreaker. Oh yeah, you know I’m talking about the San Diego Zoo’s 13-week-old giant panda cub.

Today was the first time I got to see the furry ball of fluff. I was in the exam room as a Zoo PR rep writing today’s press release on the exam. I thought I was ready for it. Just like you, I’ve seen the videos. Studied the photos of him exam after exam.
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As we are starting to get some cooler weather, there is a definite change in our pandas’ behavior and eating habits. In China, these bears would be dealing with much colder weather than we have here in San Diego, and in the winter they would even have snow. Giant pandas are found in elevations of 4,000 to 11,000 feet (1,200 to 3,300 meters), so they would feel that weather change there much more than here at our Zoo! Pandas, unlike most bears, don’t hibernate. Having a good fat layer and a 3-inch-thick (8-centimeter-thick) fur coat helps keep them warm and dry. Even when it rains, only that top layer of fur gets wet, and if you were to examine the fur closer to their skin you’d find it nice and dry.
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Ron is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, working with Polar Bears International. Read his previous post, The Polar Bears of Churchill.

This really is shaping up to be an amazing experience. Each day I go out on the Tundra Buggy, run by Frontiers North Adventures. Oh, and by the way, they are giving us a free pass on the Tundra Buggy and a room in the Tundra Lodge. They like what we are doing, trying to bring more attention to the plight of the polar bear. And it’s hard to imagine a species more deserving of attention than polar bears. They are the world’s largest terrestrial carnivores, and they are impressive.
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