< month 14
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Mei is on the prowl-
maybe for her next snack? |
Friday, October 5
I haven’t had the pleasure of working with the pandas for quite a while, so this is a treat for me today. I am amazed that in my short absence, Mei Lan has made leaps and bounds in her development. First of all, I remember her being about 45-50 pounds – not the whopping 62 pounds that she weighed this morning. Also, the last time I was here, she would play with fruit and biscuits, but she existed solely on Lun Lun’s milk. Oh, how times have changed. Today, I was actually able to hand her a couple of leaf eater biscuits and pieces of fruit. She took the food, assumed the panda eating position, and chowed down right in front of me. It almost brought a little tear to my eye. Our little baby is growing up! All of this was very exciting, but it wasn’t the best news that I discovered upon my return. Upon cleaning the dayroom last night, I came across a nice little gift left to me from Mei Lan. Being a keeper, I dove right in to examine it, only to discover many pieces of chewed bamboo inside. All of the estimates say that pandas will start to consume bamboo at around 13 months of age. She will be 13 months old tomorrow, so I would say that she is right on track with her development. I can’t wait to see what she will be doing the next time they allow me the pleasure of working with the pandas again.
Kenn Harwood
Large Mammal/Carnivore Keeper III
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Napping in the grass |
Wednesday, October 3
One way we enrich the pandas is by providing them with different scents and smells. Yang Yang has been shown to love Tabasco sauce, while Lun Lun has always had a liking for mint-scented items. Sometimes we offer the different smells to them on an item like a ball or box. Other times, we just put some straight onto the structures in the habitats. When Lun Lun and Yang Yang really like a certain scent, they will take that item and rub it over their bodies or rub their bodies against the structure (we call this action scent anointing). So I wondered if Mei Lan would react the same way to any of the scents that are approved as safe to offer to the pandas. I tried mint extract with her this week- I held an item that had the scent on it right up to her nose. Any grand reaction like her parents had?!? Nope-- just went on her way like there was nothing there. Guess I will have to keep trying other scents to see what she likes and when she will react the same way that Yang Yang and Lun Lun do.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
Monday, October 1
Like most Atlantans, Mei Lan is enjoying the cooler fall weather. She stayed outside until 2:30 p.m. today, but came in promptly when Lun Lun bleated to her from inside. Mei Lan had a brief play session with some of her toys inside. Then a long play session with Lun Lun, showing that her mom is the best plaything of all. Finally, she enjoyed a late lunch, nursing in the hammock.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
Friday, September 28
Mei Lan did something especially cute yesterday morning. On her way outside to join her mom, she picked up one of her jolly ball toys and carried it outside with her. We rarely give her balls outside, because they often end up in the moat and are then ignored. I guess Mei Lan decided she’d better take her toy with her if she wanted to play with it outside.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
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Mei Lan's diet is not strictly bambootarian yet... |
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Wednesday, September 26
Although Mei Lan has shown more interest in bamboo in the last few weeks, she’s still not feeding on bamboo. She is eating a few leaf eater biscuits each day, as well as some small amounts of fruit, but milk remains her primary source of calories. She still tends to nurse sometime between 12:00-4:00 p.m. each day for about 15 minutes. The keepers also sometimes see her nurse in the morning around 7:00 when they start their day with the pandas. We also think she probably nurses sometime during the night, but we don’t know for sure because we don’t watch her overnight. Lun Lun and Mei Lan’s favorite daytime nursing spot is still the hammock. Often it is Lun Lun who initiates nursing by bleating (an affiliative or friendly vocalization) and then approaching Mei Lan, who is often sleeping.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
Monday, September 24
Sleeping bears, YEAH!!! Okay, at least not today, from what I have seen. But this weekend was a nice one, because even though we did not have much bamboo that was to their liking, the bears didn’t complain much and slept instead. Yang was the champion of the weekend sleeping match (even beating out Mei Lan if you ask me). While outside, he just lay back there in his cave and slumbered contently. Who knows why, but typically over the summer, he just sleeps and doesn’t eat much. We haven’t really seen much of that this year, except for the last few days. But as any giant panda keeper will tell you, a sleeping panda is a happy panda.
Joseph T. Svoke
Carnivore Keeper II
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A tango with bamboo |
Friday, September 21
Mei Lan is 60 pounds on the nose. It’s hard to believe how much she’s grown, and when you look back on those “stick of butter” pictures, it’s hard to believe that they are the same little bear. Her personality has evolved into this bizarre combination of both her parents, and until now, I would not have guessed that goofiness (thanks, Yang Yang) could be genetic. But some of her antics are clearly not a result of watching her mom …
It always makes me smile to catch a few minutes just to watch them. Visitors are amazed that keepers don’t have many pictures, or have missed specific events that have happened. Well, while most of the fun stuff is going on, we’re in the back cleaning, recording data, building toys, preparing food, etc. So unless we glance at the cameras, we miss a lot. So those few images we do get are priceless.
My favourite new behaviour from the kiddo is watching her grab mom by the butt. When Lun Lun is wandering, eating and especially climbing, the little black-and-white ninja suddenly darts out and gets a mouthful of the fur on mom’s rear and starts pulling for all she’s worth. This is entirely entertaining to observe and seems like payback for all the times mom knocked her out of the tree to get her to nurse or follow. I was also lucky enough to catch Mei Lan’s and mom’s antics with the big black culvert we put in during Mei’s birthday week. I threw a toy inside, and when Mei Lan went in to get it, Lun stood up and started pushing the culvert around so that the cub was rolling like she was in a funhouse at the carnival! Good stuff. Stay tuned for more miniature mayhem.
Jay Pratte
Carnivore Keeper III
Wednesday, September 19
We have recently started to see Mei Lan perform a behavior we refer to as anogenital rubbing. Giant pandas have a large scent gland under their tails, which is referred to as an anogenital gland. They rub this gland on trees, the ground and many other surfaces to leave secretions behind. These secretions are scent marks or messages, which other giant pandas can read. We know from research conducted by scientists from the Zoological Society of San Diego that giant pandas find out a lot of information from a scent mark, including the marker’s approximate age, sex, reproductive condition and identity. Scent is the primary mode of communication for giant pandas. Because they are solitary and rarely see each other, they keep track of each other using scent.
Mei Lan’s scent gland is just starting to develop. It will grow slowly over the next couple of years. She doesn’t seem to be producing any secretions yet, but she has started to rub that area on different surfaces. Giant panda cubs typically start anogenital rubbing when they are about a year old. Giant pandas use four postures for scent marking, which are squat, reverse (i.e., backing up to a vertical surface and then rubbing the anogenital area), leg cock and handstand. Cubs of both sexes may display one or all of these postures in the first few years.
Adult females mainly use the squat and reverse postures. Adult males use those postures as well as leg cock and handstand postures. Leg cock and handstand postures can be used to place scent marks higher on vertical surfaces. It’s a way for males to communicate their size, which is important for mate competition, to each other. Scientists from Zoological Society of San Diego have shown that males pay attention to the height of scent marks and react differently to high versus low marks.
So, watch for Mei Lan’s scent marking behavior to continue to develop. It’s one of many important changes she is undergoing as part of growing up.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
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Get this panda a piña colada!
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Monday, September 17
With summer coming to an end and the temperatures finally breaking here in Atlanta (staying below 80°F) the pandas are able to stay outside longer. Yang Yang is able to enjoy his nap time in the cave; while Lun Lun and Mei Lan prefer to sleep on any of the climbing structures. It is always nice to see them outside in the fresh air.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
Friday, September, 14
What to write about? That is a hard one to figure out today. Normally we (the panda keepers) rely on being in the building and around all three bears to figure out something to write. Sometimes it is something new that they have done, or just something fun and interesting that they have done. The problem for me today is that I have not been in the panda building for four days now, so I haven't been able to watch them. I don't have much to behavior to talk about, so I’ll take you back to Sunday, the last day that I was in the building.
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Even from this angle, Mei is still cute! |
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While collecting data on Mei Lan in the outside habitat, I was able to see my first "interaction" between Mei and Yang. I hesitate to say it is that way because I don't want to give people the wrong impression of what I mean. It was only sound and smell. As mentioned in earlier updates, dad and cub will not have any physical contact with each other. At the training panel between the two outside yards, both Mei and Yang sat on either side of it trying to figure out what was on the other side. Both were smelling and scratching through the little cracks, trying to make out what it could be. Who will actually know if they figured it out, but Mei soon got distracted by something else and walked away. Yang sat there a little while longer but soon after gave up when nothing was “communicating” back.
Joseph T. Svoke
Carnivore Keeper II
Tuesday, September 12
With the cooler morning temperatures of the past week, we have started throwing the pandas outside to start the day. The humidity is still up there, and by late morning they're not so happy, but at least they are in the grass, trees, and fresh air for a while. Mei Lan loves the structures and tall stumps for climbing, and generally has a great time. Lun Lun is not yet sold on being out, and is often waiting by the door to come in. Clearly we will need to recondition her to staying outside. Yang is, well, Yang. Eats, sleeps, pouts, plays. The whole gamut of behaviours. But at least he's not being irascible with us at the moment, which makes things a little easier.
Bonnie and I are also still plugging along with the memory study. Lun Lun is in the final stages of training. We are now able to fade the light quickly when she is released from her distant target, so that by the time she pushes any button (correctly or not) the light is totally off. We will try to incorporate the 2 second delay and get her reliably responding correctly, so the true study parameters can begin.
Mei Lan is doing well with her basic training, and will even come to the door when she is called in the middle of the day (like Kate did yesterday). As her food motivation increases, we should be able to expand her range of behaviours.
Jay Pratte
Carnivore Keeper III
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Yang Yang gets his birthday gift:
a blue nose! |
Monday, September 10
Well, we have finished all of the panda bear birthdays here at Zoo Atlanta. We concluded the celebrations yesterday with Yang Yang turning 10 years old. He received a painted paper bag with Tabasco Sauce and a ball inside. He started off with self anointing himself with the bag. This caused the blue non-toxic paint to rub off all over his nose (and he still has some left on the end of his nose today). Then he tossed the bag around till it ended up in the moat in the outdoor habitat- where he left it for the remainder of the morning. All in all, I think Yang Yang, Lun Lun, and Mei Lan enjoyed their special birthday enrichment items over the last 3 weeks.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
Friday, September 7
Wow! The celebration for Mei Lan’s birthday yesterday was amazing! It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed. Much of it seems like a blur to me. I remember watching and worrying over her late at night when she was only a few days old, thinking that I couldn’t wait for her to be two or three months old so that she’d be less fragile and we could stop worrying about her. Turns out we had nothing to worry about, because Lun Lun is a fantastic mother and as a result Mei Lan has been strong and healthy since day one. Now, part of me would like to go back to that early period, because it seems like she has grown up so fast. So, I remind myself that we must cherish each day with her and look forward to continuing to watch her grow and develop her unique personality.
We have received hundreds of birthday cards and letters from you telling us how much the pandas have touched your lives. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We are deeply grateful for your support and we are so happy that the pandas mean so much to you.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
< month 14
