< month 16
Friday, December 7
Mei Lan hit a new milestone today! When the opening keepers entered the area where Mei Lan's and Lun Lun's overnight den is located, Mei Lan climbed up the mesh and bleated. Mei Lan has made all sorts of vocalizations since her birth, but so far, we have not heard her bleat. Giant pandas use bleating as a friendly vocalization or a contact call to other pandas. Lun Lun and Yang Yang bleat quite often, usually to let us know they want more bamboo. Lun Lun also bleats to Mei Lan to encourage her to follow her.
Heather Baker Roberts
Keeper I, Carnivore Department
Wednesday, December 5
Watching Lun Lun and Mei Lan eat bamboo, it has been interesting to see the differences between them. Lun Lun easily breaks a large culm (i.e., the center stalk) in half, dexterously peels the tough outer skin away, and then takes big, efficient bites of the inner culm. Mei Lan gnaws on the culm sometimes, but she has not yet mastered peeling or breaking. She mostly focuses on the leaves, often nibbling a few off and then slowly chewing them. Lun Lun, on the other hand, uses her mouth to strip large bunches of leaves off the branches, and then holds the bundle of leaves in one paw while feeding them into her mouth. In a few months, Mei Lan will be just as efficient at eating bamboo as her mother is, but for now, it’s fun to watch her less-than-perfect attempts.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
Monday, December 3
It has been fun to watch how Lun and Mei act alike at certain times of the day. Last week, Kate called me over to the window that looks into the dayrooms from the outside habitat. There they were hunched over in a typical “panda position,” enjoying their last little bits of the biscuits they received after coming inside. It gave both of us a good laugh, and we both wished that we had a camera to take photos. We are seeing this occur more and more often. A few days later, Lun and Mei were both sitting side by side eating bamboo outside, with bamboo leaves hanging out of their mouths. Like mother, like daughter, I guess. I guess sometimes I do say “like father, like daughter,” though, because I think Mei has equal portions of both her parents’ behavior in her. It’s all just a part of growing up.
Joseph T. Svoke
Carnivore Keeper II
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Did someone put caffeine in her bamboo? |
Friday,
November 30
Mei Lan has been very playful today. I’m sure that those of you watching PandaCam have enjoyed her antics as much as we have. When I first put the giant pandas out this morning, I wedged a horse ball in the climbing structure so that it would fall if one of them walked by it. I put it in the path that Mei Lan usually takes when climbing the structure. As expected, Mei bumped the ball as she passed it, and it fell to the ground. She reared up to pounce on it, but of course, she had to climb to the floor before she could get to it. She lumbered down the structure and attacked the ball, then rolled and batted the ball for a few minutes before picking it up by the handle and carrying it around. She wanted to take it up to her favorite spot on the climbing structure, but she couldn’t manage to carry the ball while climbing, and she dropped it. And the whole thing started over. She played like this for about half an hour. She grabbed the ball again this afternoon during another play bout, but this time she was more interested in tackling her mother than the ball.
Heather Baker Roberts
Carnivore Keeper I
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Mei can be seen napping with her donut on these rainy days.
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Wednesday, November 28
Today has been one of those run of the mill days with nothing much to report. The weather has been extremely nice today, so all of the pandas have taken advantage of it by sleeping most of the day away outside. Mei Lan did her normal exploring earlier this morning, but wore herself out by lunch time. Sorry, not much else to report today other than a weight of 32.1 Kg (70.62 lbs) and a healthy appetite for biscuits and fruit and moms milk.
Kenn Harwood
Lead Keeper of Carnivores
Monday, November 26
Georgia is starting to get some rain after a long period without. All three bears were outside yesterday when the drizzle started. Yang Yang and Lun Lun both took cover in the outdoor caves shortly after the rain started to fall a little harder. Mei Lan on the other hand, who was already asleep on top of the structure, stayed curled up there. After about 20 minutes of sleeping in the rain, Mei Lan wised up and crawled down from the top and decided to come inside for the rest of her nap time.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
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Would you like a side of bamboo with that? |
Wednesday, November 21
Tomorrow may be Thanksgiving to all of us, but to the pandas it is just another day to enjoy bamboo. I will have the pleasure of servings the pandas their bamboo meals tomorrow. Mei Lan seems to be eating more and more bamboo everyday. She is also started to wait for biscuits and fruit with Lun Lun during the mid-morning feeding. Sometimes we sit up top of the exhibit and toss down biscuits to Lun Lun and Yang Yang. Now, Mei Lan will sit next to her mom and look up at us waiting for share to fall from above and if she does not get them from us she will gladly help herself to Lun Lun’s share. No wonder Mei Lan’s weight is up to 71 pounds.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
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Mei Lan enjoys hanging out with her donut
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Monday, November 19
Yesterday, I watched a long play fighting session between Lun Lun and Mei Lan. Someone recently asked me what the differences are between play fighting and actual fighting. There is the obvious difference in intent. In fighting the intent is to cause injury or at least drive the opponent away. In play fighting, injury does not occur and participants often perform behaviors that encourage the partner to continue playing. For example, a classic feature of play is role reversal. The chaser frequently becomes the chased or one animal may appear to have the advantage and then suddenly this reverts and the other animal is on top. Animals also often self handicap during play. Lun Lun is stronger and faster than Mei Lan, but Lun Lun often handicaps herself by laying down when playing or by chasing Mei Lan at a walk rather than at a run. Another common characteristic of play is that it is usually silent. Fighting on the other hand, is usually very noisy. Giant pandas growl, moan, bark and roar when fighting, but play is silent or occasionally punctuated by a whine when one partner bites a little too hard. Finally, play movements are often exaggerated. Watch Mei Lan bound after Lun Lun or make a tremendous leap on top of her and you will see what I mean. All of these signals let you and the participants know that play is occurring.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
Friday, November 16
This morning showed me that I think Lun Lun is starting to get a little annoyed with Mei Lan. Of course, when Mei is up, she wants to play a lot or nurse. Lun, though, is not as obliging as she has been in the past, but Mei still does all she can to get a reaction out of her mom. Anyway, back to my point, when they were being put outside this morning, Lun was ready to go, being near the door, and Mei was down the hallway. Once the door was opened, Mei came running toward it, but Lun stopped her with a glare. She just turned her head and stared at Mei, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. Then, Mei turned the opposite way and walked away, while Lun headed out into the habitat. It took another 30 minutes for Mei to head out and rejoin her mother, which of course, delayed my routine by that much. I had never seen Lun do this before; in the past, she had pushed Mei off, but nothing like this. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is a continuing trend or just a one-time thing.
Joseph T. Svoke
Carnivore Keeper II
Wednesday, November 14
It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work with the giant pandas. I know that I may sound like a broken record because I write the same thing every time, but I just can’t believe how big Mei Lan has gotten. Every time I come back to see her, she has put on at least 10 to 15 pounds and looks like she has doubled in size. She is now right at 70 pounds. She no longer looks anything like the little baby I used to watch for eight hours a day; instead, she’s starting to look more and more like an adult. The more I look at her, the more I see bits and pieces of Lun Lun and Yang Yang coming out. She has had the incredible fortitude to pick up the best physical features from both her mom and her dad. Some of the features she has inherited are Lun’s beautiful round face, as well as Yang’s big ears. What can I say? Some critters just get all the luck.
Kenn Harwood
Large Mammal/Carnivore Relief Keeper III
Monday, November 12
Over the last two weeks Yang Yang and Lun Lun’s bamboo taste preferences have changed. They had preferred to eat the culm of Arrow bamboo (the long stick lick bamboo with a few leaves sprouting from the top). Now they seem to be enjoying Black bamboo, which is a very leafy bamboo with a black culm. They are both mainly eating the leaves of this species and sometimes the culm. Once the weather gets even colder here, the pandas seem to switch to a species call Rivercane- so look for the changing types over the next two months.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
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| Snack time is quality time for Mei and Lun |
Wednesday, November 9
This morning, I was reminded of why working in the panda building during cold months (and yes, we do have some cold temperatures, at least in the morning) is not the most fun time of the year. We get spoiled in the summer months while it’s hot and humid outside and we’re able to sit indoors and enjoy the air conditioning that the pandas get. The building is normally kept between 60 and 65 degrees to keep them comfortable. But this temperature guideline applies to winter months as well. Getting in this morning from an outside temp of 35 degrees, I walked into a 50-degree building – not much fun, I have to say. The heat, unlike the air conditioning, is not kept on overnight to make sure it doesn’t get too warm. Last year we got lucky – we kept the building at a higher temperature after Mei Lan was born to make sure she didn’t get too cold. This year, we have to get back to normal, sitting huddled in multiple layers of clothes trying to maintain a reasonable body temp.
Joseph T. Svoke
Carnivore Keeper II
< month 16
