< month 19
Friday, March 7
Today marked the first day of the fourth step of the gradual weaning process for Mei Lan. During the third step (earlier this week), Mei Lan and Lun Lun were separated for 20 hours and reunited at approximately 1:30 p.m. each day. Today was the first day that they were not reunited at that time. I’m happy to report that Mei Lan spent most of the afternoon eating bamboo, which is an excellent sign. Just as we have throughout the weaning process, we will videotape both Mei Lan and Lun Lun overnight and review the tapes to assess both pandas’ behavior. Thus far, the weaning process has gone very smoothly!
Megan Wilson, PhD
Assistant Curator of Carnivores
Wednesday, March 5
If you haven't noticed, Mei Lan has been in the dayrooms much more than she usually is, especially over the last few days. This will probably continue at least for the next week (maybe longer, depending on the plans). We are doing this because Mei and Lun need to be kept as far apart as possible, without any door-to-door contact. So when you all have been watching PandaCam, maybe you’ve noticed that nobody has been on the other side of the doors that Mei has had access to. This started back in the very beginning when they were first separated during the daytime, with Mei in the dayroom and Lun out in the far habitat (which we call habitat 2). During the next phase, Mei stayed in the dayrooms overnight again, while Lun was in the dens furthest away. Now while Mei spends the time in the dayroom during the daytime, Lun once again is in the far outdoor habitat. This does not mean that Mei doesn't go outside anymore, though. We try to put her outside as much as possible when she is back with her mom. So, if you see a bear through the window, it’s Yang Yang. Luckily, this does not seem to affect Mei in any way.
Joseph T. Svoke
Giant Panda Keeper II, Carnivore Department
Monday, March 3
Hi everybody, my name is Ben Charlton. I just started working for Zoo Atlanta last fall, having recently completed my PhD at the University of Sussex in the U.K. My specialist field is in mammal vocal communication and female mate choice, and over the next two years I will be trying to unravel the mysteries of giant panda vocal communication given in sexual contexts. Right now I am in China to do fieldwork at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and I will be providing weekly updates of my progress, so watch this page!
At the moment, the estrogen profiles of all of the female pandas at the Research Base are still at baseline, and no signs of behavioural estrus have been observed. Consequently, panda vocal activity is low and it is still reasonably quiet up at the Base (the quiet before the storm methinks!). The staff at the Base think the cold weather is delaying the onset of estrus, so I have decided to use the time to try out some pilot playbacks and to identify the best times of day to conduct my experiments (i.e., when background noise is minimal and the pandas are active). I have also been re-recording some of my playback stimuli in and out of doors to determine the effective range for signal propagation outside and to examine the effect of sound reverberation indoors.
In addition, I have also been able to get some good recordings of Cheng Gong (female), Kobi (male) and Bing Dian (male), and some not-so-good ones of Bing Bing (female) and Ya Guang (male), to add to the ongoing acoustic analysis of giant panda vocalisations that I am conducting. I need to obtain recordings of males unfamiliar to the current crop of females at the Base to use as stimuli for my playback experiments. I may be able to use Bing Dian’s bleats, because the females will not be exposed to him this year, and he has only just returned to the Base after an absence of 5 years. He does produce abnormally high-pitched bleats though (~550Hz), so his vocalisations may prove hard to re-synthesise.
Finally, there have been some interesting responses to some of Yang Yang’s bleats (our male at Zoo Atlanta). When I played them to some animals at the Base, Qi Yuan (a female) chirped almost immediately in response to each one, and Lin Lin (a male) approached and began to bleat quite a bit. I am glad that the pandas are responsive to playbacks of bleats and it makes me excited about the future experiments I have planned.
Ben Charlton, PhD
Research Biologist
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Lun and Mei getting their grub on! |
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Friday, February 29
Mei Lan and Lun Lun continue to do well during the weaning process. Mei Lan seems to be growing faster than ever. She weighed 39.5 kg (87 lbs) this morning. JT and I were discussing her weight this morning and realized that she has gained about 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) over the past two weeks. Typically, her weight stays about the same for a week or two, and then she will gain a little – usually less than a kilogram – seemingly overnight. But over the last couple of weeks, she has shown a gradual increase almost every day. It must be all that bamboo she has been eating!
Heather Baker Roberts
Keeper I, Carnivore Department
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Wednesday, February 27
The weaning process continues to go smoothly. Last night Mei Lan and Lun Lun were separated for the first time overnight. We videotaped them and reviewed the tape today. They did very well and showed no signs of being distressed about being separated. Mei Lan ate bamboo and manipulated her enrichment items for about two hours in the evening. Then she slept continuously from 8:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. She ate a little more and then went back to sleep until JT arrived at 7:00 a.m. He had a hard time waking her up to eat her breakfast and be reunited with her mom. So far, Mei Lan has not vocalized while separated from her mother. Lun Lun and Mei Lan showed no reaction when they were given access to each other. Lun Lun started eating bamboo right away. A few minutes later Mei Lan nursed for about ten minutes, ate some bamboo, and then went back to sleep.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivore
Monday, February 25
Overall, the weaning process has gone about as smoothly as we expected this first step to go. Neither Lun Lun nor Mei Lan has exhibited any behaviors that would make us stop to think we needed to take a step back or hold off on moving forward. Lun did show a bit of slight aggression toward Mei yesterday. About 45 minutes after their reintroduction, Mei Lan decided she wanted to play with mom, but Lun was more interested in eating her bamboo. Mei was relentless, but all Lun would do was just nudge her off and go back to eating. After about seven minutes of this, though, Lun had to offer a little “discipline.” She grabbed Mei and pushed her forcefully to the ground, then took a nip at her. This only happened once, but Mei continued doing as she had done before, even though Lun didn’t reciprocate the play behavior, just continued to eat. It was good to see that Lun didn’t escalate the aggression, but did Mei learn her lesson?
Joseph T. Svoke
Giant Panda Keeper II, Carnivore Department
Friday, February 22
Yesterday, we started the gradual weaning process for Mei Lan. She was separated from her mother in the morning. It went very smoothly. They both ate bamboo most of the time. Neither panda vocalized or seemed to be searching for the other. When they were reunited in the afternoon, Lun Lun bleated once softly when she saw Mei Lan, then walked past her and started eating bamboo. Mei Lan also ate bamboo nearby for several minutes. Lun Lun then decided to check out some of the enrichment. When she was lying on the ground playing with a scented bag, Mei Lan climbed on her and they played for a few minutes. Then Mei Lan nursed for about five minutes. Lun Lun ended this session by first rolling onto her stomach, and then walking away when Mei Lan pushed on her. Overall, their behavior is what we expected.
We have received some questions from people wondering why we are separating mother and cub, rather than waiting for Lun Lun to wean Mei Lan naturally. The reason is that captive giant pandas don’t live in a natural environment. We try in a variety of ways to make it as natural as possible, but we are not able to provide all the elements of a wild environment. Obviously, one of the biggest differences between the captive and wild environments is the amount of space. It is unknown how wild giant pandas wean their cubs. We do know that mothers spend several hours at a time away from their cubs. One possible weaning method is that a wild mother leaves her cub to go on a long foraging bout and never returns. We are unsure how or if a captive giant panda mother would wean her cub in the limited space she has available. I suspect that the mother would have to resort to aggressive behavior to drive her cub away and end nursing. Rather than test this possibility, we chose to use the same method used successfully by the Zoological Society of San Diego and National Zoological Park to wean giant panda cubs.
We know that 18 months is the normal age at which a wild giant panda cub disperses from its mother. Mei Lan’s behavior and eating patterns indicate that she is ready to live independently. We are monitoring her and Lun Lun’s responses to the process very closely and will make adjustments if needed. We love Mei Lan and Lun Lun as much as all of you do. We make decisions based on that love and a desire to do what we think is best for both of them. To decide what is best, we use scientific information from wild and captive studies, knowledge gained from the practices of other institutions, and data from our observations of our pandas.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivore
Wednesday, February 20
Over the past several weeks, we have observed a sharp increase in the amount of bamboo consumed by Mei Lan. This is evident in the amount of time we observe her eating and also in the amount of fecal left behind from overnight. This trend puts her right on track to be where she should before she is weaned off of Lun Lun's milk. Another trend that we see but is not talked about much is the location of fecal piles left from overnight while we clean in the morning. Because of Mei Lan's increase in size, we have been giving her and Lun access to a dayroom, as well as to their inside holding area overnight. When this started, we would see an even mix of Mei’s feces interspersed with Lun's. As time has drawn on, however, the piles have become much more isolated from one another. This was never more evident than yesterday, when in the dayroom, I found nine piles from Mei Lan and zero from Lun Lun. The exact opposite was seen in the inside dens. What this tells us is that Mei Lan is spending most of the overnight hours in the dayroom, while Lun Lun is spending time in the den. While the two still seem to enjoy each other’s company, it is evident to us that the natural separation of mother and cub has already started occurring. Over the next few weeks, we will gradually increase their time apart until they’re permanently independent of one another. We have written all along about Mei Lan's little milestones, but none will be as great as this one. Our little girl is almost “all growed up” now!
Kenn Harwood
Lead Keeper of Carnivores
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Moseying her way to adulthood... |
Monday, February 18
Just three weeks ago, I talked about how we had remove seven little piles of Mei Lan poop from overnight. We were using a little white one-gallon bucket to collect her poop so that we could weight it out (for the adult bears we use one to two five-gallon size buckets per individual). That all changed this morning, as J.T. found and counted out 16 piles of Mei Lan poop from overnight. This amounted to 1.70 kg of feces and would not fit into her little white bucket; she has moved up to the big leagues. It amazes me how much the amount has increased in such a short amount of time - just goes to show her food intake keeps on going up.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper II
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Mei Lan, gets a breather |
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Friday, February 15
Mei Lan was very playful this morning around 10 a.m. Her rambunctiousness even inspired Lun Lun to leave her breakfast and join in, which is unusual. The play bout lasted about 20 minutes. It's been several days since I've seen Mei Lan so playful. She has been so focused on eating these past few weeks that she has not taken much time to play as much. Although she will remain playful for several more months (or several more years since she is so much like Yang Yang!), it is normal for her to spend less time playing as she gets older.
Heather Baker Roberts
Keeper I, Carnivore Department
Wednesday, February 13
Today I had the opportunity to observe some more of the panda training with both Lun and Yang. J.T. is quite the trainer, as he had to do some basic training with Mei just to keep her preoccupied and out of momma's lap while he tried to focus his training on Lun. It is possible, of course, to separate them for the purpose of a concentrated training session, but we had to shift them to clean anyway so he was showing me some more behaviors. I have to say, it is quite amusing and even funny to watch Lun Lun try and concentrate so intently while her daughter is climbing all over her and vying for J.T.'s attention and treats. Miss Mei is becoming very food- motivated, now tipping the scales at 37 kg.
Jennifer Brink
Keeper II, Carnivores
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Mei, on the move... |
Monday, February 11
Mei Lan surprised me twice yesterday by acting differently than she normally does. When I went to do my a.m. check first thing in the morning, I could not locate her. She was not in any den with Lun and not in the "tree" structure in one of the indoor habitats that they both have access to overnight. These are the reliable places that I will find her in the morning, normally. So I checked again, thinking maybe I had just missed her. After all, it was 7 a.m., and I have to admit I am not a morning person. Still, I did not see her. After some more checking, I finally got a glimpse of a little foot twitching – like a panda’s does when they dream. She had decided to sleep on the ground, just to the left of the keeper door, probably the only blind stop in the room (when looking through the window on the door). That was the first time that I had ever seen her sleep on the ground, and not up on some sort of structure.
Then, Mei decided that she was going to spent most of the day awake. She did sleep for over an hour in the morning, but that was it. She woke up right after Lun Lun lay down, and went over to try to nurse, because this is about the only time that she has an opportunity to anymore. The rest of the day, she was awake and active, so it was the prefect day to be here at the Zoo to see her on the move.
Joseph T. Smoke
Giant Panda Keeper II, Carnivore Department
Friday, February 8
Yang Yang is experiencing the usual change in behavior we see in male giant pandas every spring. Giant pandas are seasonal breeders, with most females cycling sometime in February-May. Both sexes undergo hormonal changes in the spring. Testosterone in males starts to increase in the fall and remains at high levels throughout the spring. This hormonal change prepares males for mating with females throughout spring and for competing with other males for access to cycling females. As a result, male giant pandas in the wild and in captivity exhibit a change in behavior which usually starts in January and continues into May. During this time, males spend a lot of time walking, climbing, scent marking (including urinating and defecating), and vocalizing (mainly bleating). These behaviors help a male to find cycling females and to advertise the male’s presence to other males in the area. Competition for cycling females is fierce in the wild. Males are often injured during fights over females, and increased testosterone helps prepare these males to fight. Yang Yang started walking, climbing, scent marking and bleating more in January, and these behaviors are continuing to increase. This is normal for him, and we know that he experiences normal seasonal changes in testosterone.
He’s lucky, because he has Lun Lun all to himself when she cycles. He doesn’t have to fight any other males for her. However, this might not be such a good thing for either of them. It’s possible that male-male competition is highly stimulating and needed for some individuals to mate. The lack of competition might be one reason Yang Yang and Lun Lun have not mated yet. We have tried a variety of things to simulate competition (e.g., spraying another adult male’s urine in Yang Yang’s and Lun Lun’s enclosure), but it hasn’t made any noticeable difference. It is a potential problem that zoological staff is aware of and trying to address. The good news is that for most captive individuals it doesn’t seem to be an issue, perhaps because they are housed at large breeding centers with lots of potential mates available and potential rivals nearby.
Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Carnivores
