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panda Yun Zi

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Yun Zi and Hammock Update

By
Jennifer Becerra
– April 24, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Pandas, San Diego Zoo Blogs
Here's another view of the new artificial tree.

Here’s another view of the new artificial tree.

It’s been great to see giant panda Yun Zi’s exhibit go through so many changes in such a short time, and we are not done yet! He will get a hammock. His old one is badly torn up—they don’t last forever with all the use they get. Our Exhibits Team is on the job making a new one, but we have to be patient. They are extremely busy with projects all around the San Diego Zoo. Also, as keepers, we need to find the perfect place to hang the hammock so he will both use it and remain visible for visitors.

It’s been an experience to see Yun Zi sleep at the top of his 15-foot tree—now he can see his mom and baby brother. He is also enjoying the new location of his “lounge chair,” and the guests can now see him up close. Tomorrow, our Horticulture Team is going to help us add new plants and sod to both exhibits. Yun Zi is also continuing his blood-draw training, so we will be able to get a blood sample without using anesthesia. He is excelling with all his training.

Jennifer Becerra is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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228

Yun Zi and His New Tree

By
Jennifer Becerra
– March 22, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized
Yun Zi checks out his new tree while munching.

Yun Zi checks out his new tree while munching.

I am very excited and extremely thankful to all our panda fans for the addition of the long-awaited artificial tree to the San Diego Zoo’s panda exhibit. It will provide many uses for our bears for years to come. This large tree can serve as a rain shelter, shade and climbing structure, and will be a great place for pandas to sleep.

SJ Rocks has done a magnificent job on the tree, and it’s more than I expected. I was very fortunate to be able to help in the design process with my manager and supervisor’s assistance. We started out with different tree options and decided on a bonsai-type tree. It is 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall and 6 feet (1.8 meters) in circumference around the base. There is a walk-through center for shade and four large sleeping branches. Each of the branches has room to put live plants on the ends (to act as leaves) and in a few select places in the trunk of the tree.

The tree is extremely impressive to see, and I am so pleased with how it turned out. Yun Zi was given access to the tree yesterday, and it will probably take him a few days to master it all. What fun!

Jennifer Becerra is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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83

Pandas: Yun Zi and Family

By
Debbie Andreen
– February 28, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas
Yun Zi's done a lot of growing since he's 3rd birthday.

Yun Zi’s done a lot of growing since his 3rd birthday.

Panda Yun Zi, now 3 1/2, has been off exhibit while his new artificial tree is created. Keepers report that he is enjoying his time off exhibit with all the extra attention he gets from them! As you may know, Yun Zi has access to an enclosure that is next to the north exhibit where his younger brother, Xiao Liwu, and mother are during the day. This has provided great fun for Yun Zi!

In this off-exhibit enclosure, Yun Zi can scamper up a climbing structure high enough to peek into the north exhibit to see his mother and brother. And, he can peek at them and sniff them through the doors that connect the two exhibits. This is very exciting for Yun Zi but is not appreciated by his mother! While he is up high or at the door, Yun Zi calls to his family members with soft, friendly bleats. These are answered with barks and chomps from Bai Yun, basically telling him to back off. After all, Bai Yun’s priority is to protect her newest cub from any intruder, even if that intruder is her older son. Yun Zi takes these reproaches in stride–no harm done!

Many of you have been wondering about snow day(s). We are hoping to have the first snow day sometime next month, on a day that has not yet been finalized. When we have a firm date, we will post it on the Panda Cam page. More good news: thanks to generous donors, enough money has been raised to provide Xiao Liwu with an additional snow day on his birthday!

Debbie Andreen is an editor and blog moderator for San Diego Zoo Global.

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615

A Tree for Panda Yun Zi

By
Jennifer Becerra
– February 15, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Just wait until Yun Zi sees his newest gift from panda fans!

Just wait until Yun Zi sees his newest gift from panda fans!

It’s official! We are going to start building Yun Zi’s artificial tree very soon! We have talked to our wonderful contractors and have decided on its design and placement. It is going to look like a large bonsai tree and will be around 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall. We are very excited and thankful for the donations from all the panda fans that went into this! Our Horticulture Team added a new Chinese elm tree in Yun Zi’s exhibit as well on Thursday, February 14.

We will be taking down Yun Zi’s current climbing structure to make room for the 6-foot (1.8 meter) base of the artificial tree. The tree will take approximately four weeks to build on site (yes, it will be built in the exhibit!) as long as weather conditions are ideal (no rain). As a keeper, I really enjoy exhibit renovations, and to help design something like this tree is amazing. I am really excited to see how all the pandas will enjoy it and use it (as you know, we sometimes rotate the pandas into different exhibit areas).

There is a lot of preparation that is being done to Yun Zi’s exhibit currently, so please be patient with us and understand that he will have to be off exhibit during this entire process. Gao Gao will remain on exhibit as long as he seems comfortable during the building phase of the tree (Gao Gao’s exhibit is right next to Yun Zi’s). Yun Zi will be in the indoor bedrooms close to his keepers, and during the day he will have access to the outdoor habitat next to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu’s north exhibit. When you are visiting Mom and cub, look up in the trees and you might see Yun Zi!

Jennifer Becerra is a senior panda keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Panda Cub: The Den.

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273

Pandas: The Big Boys

By
Anastasia Horning
– February 11, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized
yummy

Life is good for Gao Gao.

As our panda cub is growing and changing on a regular basis, let’s not forget our older boys!

Gao Gao is doing well and has been eating quite a bit. Since he is getting panda bread every day, sometimes our keepers have to spice things up a bit and put either honey or applesauce on the bread to encourage Gao Gao to eat it. The panda bread is made up of bamboo that Gao Gao has rejected from previous meals, ground into a coarse powder, as well as ground leaf eater biscuits, shredded bamboo leaves, gelatin, and water. This is made by our keepers every morning just for Gao Gao and fed out to him throughout the day. Gao Gao’s bamboo is smaller in diameter compared to our other pandas’ diets, and this makes it easier for him to chew and digest.

Yun Zi is doing extremely well and is being a normal three year old. He has had quite a bit of fun scent marking his enclosure. The first few times I saw him leave a scent mark, he would mark the ground, turn around and smell it, and then continue to mark the rest of the enclosure. Of course, eating throughout the day has been a main part of his day; as he is not full grown yet, we may still see him jump up in weight.

Anastasia Horning is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Panda Cub: Growing and Climbing.

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188

New Scents for Pandas

By
Anastasia Horning
– December 10, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas

Gao Gao: a panda and his bamboo

The keepers at the San Diego Zoo are dedicated to enriching our animals’ lives and challenging them to exhibit their best abilities on a daily basis. A very common way of exercising our pandas’ sense of smell is to add new smells to their exhibit. Recently, one of the keepers added rosemary powder to the exhibit, and it certainly paid off for our Panda Trek visitors. Yun Zi constantly rolled in the powder and covered his entire body. Not every scent will inspire this same reaction; in fact, if the panda doesn’t like the scent at all, quite often they will completely ignore it and move on to other enrichment in the exhibit.

Keepers are always excited to have new scents and spices to try with their animals. Gao Gao had a lot of fun with apple-pie spice: he wore himself out rolling in it and fell asleep in the spice that the keeper had put out for him. Gao Gao is one of our toughest critics regarding what scents we put out and often shows that he prefers a stronger, rather than subtle, smell.

Yun Zi: How much longer will his hammock last?

Another way our keepers keep the animals busy is changing the exhibit, and sometimes the animals themselves let us know that an object in their exhibit needs to go. On Thursday, December 6, Yun Zi was climbing around on his logs right before his final feeding of the day. He was being his normal, active self, and decided to bounce on part of his climbing structure, breaking the end off! Being a bear, Yun Zi is very good at figuring out how to change things in the exhibit and even move them around. Our keepers have come to know that when cleaning up after Yun Zi, you really don’t know what to expect on a daily basis.

Anastasia Horning is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Nighttime Pandas.

Note: Plans are underway for the installation of Yun Zi’s artificial tree, which many of you helped to fund. That should happen in just a few months!

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235

Yun Zi: A Wild Child

By
Alyssa Medeiros
– October 26, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Yun Zi had fun with cinnamon sprinkled in a box, October 25.

Yun Zi was definitely a busy panda boy today! He was extremely playful this morning, rolling around in his bin and flipping it upside down. At one point, after he flipped the bin upside down, he crawled underneath it and started to walk with it on his back. He looked like he was pretending to be a turtle! Then he ran after a pile of bamboo, jumped on top of it, and began to wrestle the bamboo to the ground. After biting off some leaves and tossing it aside, he sprinted around the exhibit, playing soccer with his Boomer Ball.

Yun Zi played like this for about an hour or so. Our guests really enjoyed watching Yun Zi at play. It was definitely a great morning at the San Diego Zoo.

Alyssa Medeiros is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Yun Zi and the Box.

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20

Help Our Pandas Celebrate

By
Jennifer Becerra
– August 2, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

More birthday fun is planned for Yun Zi and his fans this weekend!

As keepers, we work really hard all day to take care of our animals. On special occasions, we work extra hard to make a day or weekend special for our pandas. Yun Zi turns three just once (August 5), but we think it’s only fair that he celebrates all his siblings’ birthdays as well. On Saturday and Sunday he is going to get special present boxes and/or ice treats. This will all lead up to another World-famous Ice Cake on Sunday, August 5 (about 9 a.m.). Plus, this year he gets to enjoy enrichment gifts made by some of his favorite fans during the Zoo’s annual Black & White Overnight; we’ll have the campers wave to the Panda Cam viewers about 8:45 a.m.

There are many ways you, too, can help Yun Zi and his bear friends celebrate: just check out the Zoo’s Animal Care Wish List. It includes everything a bear could want to help make his or her life even better!

Another wonderful way to help our black-and-white friends is by stopping by our special booth during Adopt a Panda Week at the Zoo, August 4 to 12. Adoptions start at just $15. The adoption package includes a panda adoption certificate, panda fact sheet, panda photo, and a panda plush. During Adopt a Panda Week, our booth will be set up at Panda Trek where you can meet with our adoption experts. If you can’t visit the Zoo that day, you can still adopt a panda (or other animals) online, starting at $35. Either way, all adoption proceeds go toward animal conservation projects and enrichment toys and treats for our animals at the Zoo. Plus, who wouldn’t love to take their own little plush panda home with them? For fun, choose a panda with a pink ribbon or a blue ribbon to cast a guess at to which Yun Zi’s new sibling might be! Here’s a recent glimpse of the cutie…

Jen Becerra is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Birthday Weekend for Yun Zi.

Watch the pandas daily on Panda Cam.

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50

Yun Zi and the Box

By
Alyssa Medeiros
– July 6, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Animals site sub feature, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Yun Zi eyes his next activity.

There was much to see at the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station on Independence Day. Yun Zi was being his busy self, playing with enrichment and lounging in his hammock while snacking on some bamboo. The keepers gave him a box filled with herbivore biscuits. At one point, he picked up the box with his front paws and began to spin it around with his back feet, on a mission to pour the biscuits onto the ground. He succeeded after several attempts.

After an afternoon nap, he climbed down from his tree and into his hammock. Surrounded by a large amount of bamboo, he began to feast on some large bamboo stalks and leaves, delighting all of our guests. What a way to spend the Fourth of July!

Alyssa Medeiros is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Yun Zi: Busy Panda Boy.

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18

What is Yun Zi Doing?

By
Jennifer Becerra
– February 23, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Bears, Pandas, Uncategorized

Yun Zi, our ace student!

As of January 24, 2012, giant panda Yun Zi has moved from the main viewing exhibits and is currently living in the bedroom suites at the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Trek. He is enjoying his extended vacation and being around his keepers, who dote on him all day. Yun Zi is being pampered daily with enrichment toys to keep him busy and extra training sessions with his favorite keepers. He is putting in all his effort to excel in his studies and training. Yun Zi is trying to make his parents proud by following in their footsteps!

Currently, Yun Zi is training to be a candidate for our hearing study. He is learning to be patient and sit in one place (called a “station”) until he hears a tone. When he hears a tone, he then needs to touch his nose to a red circle (the target) to let the keeper know he heard it. If he does not hear a tone, he needs to remain in the station position. This study is very important to our researchers as we test the sound frequencies and levels of a panda’s hearing. Pandas can be stressed by different noise frequencies; if we know their range of hearing, we can determine which levels are a bother to them. Yun Zi is also learning how to put his arm through a special sleeve, called a “blood draw sleeve,” so the Zoo’s vet technicians can safely take a sample of blood from his arm without the use of anesthesia. Yun Zi is currently excelling in all of his training and seems to enjoy the extra time with his keepers.

Yun Zi might not be on exhibit for a while, and it all depends on his mom. In the past, this is the time when all of our teenage bears move out to an off-exhibit area so their mother could prepare for breeding season. If you remember last year, this was the time when Yun Zi moved out and got his own apartment, so to speak (see post Yun Zi Gets Own Apartment)! This helped us prepare for the time when Bai Yun selected her “date night” with Gao Gao. It is very important that Bai Yun and Gao Gao are housed next to each other so we can detect any signs of estrus. It is an exciting time to watch both adult bears flirting with each other.

Bai Yun is the only one who can decide when she is ready, and this can be any time between now and April. We only have a small window of three days when Bai Yun can show us she is ready to spend time with her “husband.” We are all excited for a potential date night between Bai Yun and Gao Gao this spring. Keep your fingers crossed for the sound of little paws this fall!

Jennifer Becerra is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Panda Party Invitation.

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