Some of you have mentioned that you are hoping this cub is a girl, so that a potential mating with the NZP panda cub is in the cards. What you may not realize is that these two cubs are actually related to each other! The NZP adult male Tian Tian, father of their cub, is a half brother of our very own Bai Yun. Their father, Pan Pan, is one of the most successful captive breeding males ever at the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China.

Speaking of China, some of you have mentioned Hua Mei in your postings. As you may know, Hua Mei gave birth to twins last year and successfully reared them to the date on which they were weaned by the staff in Wolong (about five months of age). She did mate naturally this past spring, and was artificially inseminated (AI). Although many cubs have been born so far this year in China, as of this writing Hua Mei has not given birth… but there is plenty of time left in the birthing season, so stay tuned!

We didn’t have an AI in San Diego this past spring… Bai Yun and Gao Gao mated naturally on two occasions. That pretty much signaled the end of Gao Gao’s involvement in the matter. Like pandas in the wild, our male has had nothing to do with the rearing of this offspring or his previous one, Mei Sheng. You might be happy to hear, however, that Gao Gao is such a friendly, sweet bear that he often greets Mei Sheng with friendly vocalizations whenever they run across one another in the behind-the-scenes areas of the panda facility.

Someone asked if we had ever shown video footage to our pandas to help them learn. That strategy has been employed in China. In San Diego, however, we have been known to use audio playbacks of mating season vocalizations to try to stimulate a response in our bears during the mating season, particularly in our reticent male Shi Shi many years back. Although Bai Yun showed an excited response to the playbacks, Shi Shi was uninterested.

Thanks very much to everyone for your support and feedback. It’s good to know so many of you are with me in spirit during these long night shifts!

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam

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If you look closely at the floor of the den (where it is not covered up with bamboo) you will see a grid of lines drawn. Each of the squares on the grid measures one centimeter. If the floor of the den is visible we can extract the image of the cub from our videotape, and our veterinarians will be able to get body measurements on the cub. These measurements are very important and help us document the rate at which the cub is growing. Since the cub is still so small that we can’t see it nurse directly, its daily growth assures us that it is getting the nourishment it needs to thrive.

Of course another reason we zoom in on the cub is because everyone, researchers included, loves to see the little bear close up!

Note: If your child is following Panda Cam at home, let them have a go at measuring the cub themselves!

Megan Owen is the research coordinator for the Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam

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The addition of these blogs to the Web site has been a new and interesting mode of providing valuable information to our many panda followers. And the response has been incredible! It is so wonderful to read all of the comments and well wishes from people all over the world. There are so many “panda-fanatics” who genuinely care about our pandas and who also secretly confess to their Panda Cam addictions. Thank you all for your continued support.

Pamela Crowe is a panda researcher with the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

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As the cub grows and develops it will be able to thermoregulate better and Bai Yun’s warm and protective grip will loosen, giving all of us more frequent glimpses of the cub.

In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled! You never know when she’ll give us a peek.

Megan Owen is the research coordinator at the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam

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As time goes by we can expect to see her lengthen her feeding bouts, and to begin taking meals outside the den. How fast we see changes in this direction are largely related to how tolerant the cub will be of her absences from the den. If the infant is relatively quiet during most of her departures, it is likely that she’ll be eating big meals in her bedroom within a week or so.

Suzanne Hall is a panda research technician for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam.

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Most other bear species, including our own native black, brown and polar bears, hunker down into their dens for months during the coldest part of the year. Their cubs are born during this denning phase, and the female forgoes trips out of the den to fill her belly. These bear species are able to remain in their den for such extended periods due in large part to the fact that they accumulated large fat stores in the months prior to denning. Bears typically become hyperphagic in the fall, eating everything they can to pack on the pounds.

Pandas cannot consume as many calories per meal as polar bears or brown bears. This is due to differences in their dietary habits. You may have seen those documentaries with amazing footage of polar bears feasting on seals or walrus, or brown bears at salmon runs. Those bears are getting large amounts of protein and fat with every bite. The panda, however, is feasting on bamboo. She has to eat an awful lot of bamboo to equal the calories found in a salmon or seal.

One consequence of this is that the panda can not remain in the den without food for the same length of time as these other bear species. Pandas will leave their den in search of food within days or weeks of the birth, rather than months. Their young cubs are left behind while mother feeds. Once the cub is older and is out of the den, it will often climb high in a tree for shelter from predators while mother is off on a long foraging trip. When cubs are several months old, females may even be gone for 24 hours or more in search of food.

Bai Yun is fortunate that she can look to her keepers to provide her with the bamboo and vegetables she needs to get a quick meal close to the den as soon as she is ready to feed. Even now, the keepers are leaving her food items in an area about ten feet away from the mouth of the den. It’s only a matter of time before Bai Yun takes advantage of it.

Suzanne Hall is a panda research technician for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam.

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The strategy is to refine our avicultural techniques on those species that can tolerate our ignorance in order to avoid making costly mistakes on the rare species that cannot bear the burden. Fortunately (but not surprisingly) our record for both hatching and rearing surrogate species, as well as for the endangered species, is better than 80 percent. That is a very good record considering the delicate species that are part of our avicultural menu.

See images of some of the species below.

Alan Lieberman is the program director for the San Diego Zoo’s Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program.

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Soon the cub will be visible much of the time. It will have a fluffy coat of black and white fur and will make its first attempts at sitting up, then standing up and scooting around. The next stages of development will be more coordinated forms of locomotion and we will see the cub begin to crawl clumsily. Soon after, the cub will be walking and climbing.

Panda cubs nurse from their mothers for the first 18 months of life but they are not solely dependent on mother’s milk for that entire time. By 7 to 9 months of age the cub will begin to mouth bamboo, and a month or so later it will begin to eat small amounts of it. The skill required to process the leafy stalks into a meal are learned from watching mom.

Play behavior is also an important part of the cub’s development. We see the first attempts at play as the cub begins to interact with objects in its environment. Bamboo makes for a great play toy when you are a young panda, but just about anything laying around on the grass will do. At about 5 months of age we see the cub make concerted attempts to play with mom. The cub will climb, pull, bite and swat at Bai Yun and sometimes she will respond in kind. The cub will also play on his own and spontaneously run, roll and climb with great energy.

These are stages we all look for and enjoy watching. It’s hard to imagine while watching the 5-day-old cub now, all curled up in Bai Yun’s fur, that very soon it will be running around the enclosure and climbing on Bai Yun.

Megan Owen is the research coordinator at the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam.

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When Bai Yun and her cub are resting, she will generally be observed using one of two positions: laying on her side with her forepaws near her nose, or hunched over in a tight curl with her head on the ground and one or both forepaws tucked under her belly. In either case, those hoping for a peek at the cub should be looking in the vicinity of those forepaws, as the cub is safely held in or among them.

After a resting period of anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes, Bai Yun will position herself for nursing the cub. She typically sits in a curled position with her head hanging low, but not on the ground. Once again the cub is supported by those forepaws. Bai Yun may rest in this position as the cub nurses, or she may use her nose, mouth or paws to adjust and soothe the cub. It can be hard for us to discern nursing bouts, for even then Bai Yun covers the cub to keep it warm. However, we have learned that postural cues given by Bai Yun and certain sounds emitted by the cub are good indicators that nursing is under way. When we do get a good look at the cub (as when Bai Yun leaves the den, which she did twice this evening), we can confirm that nursing must be happening, because the infant’s belly appears round and full.

After nursing, Bai Yun will often groom the infant, and in particular will lick the cub’s genitals to stimulate the passing of waste. She may then groom herself a bit, particularly her forepaws or abdomen, before settling back down for another nap. If the cub still seems restless, she may try another nursing bout or some more grooming to soothe the cub further. Eventually both mother and cub are satisfied and can enjoy a little shuteye together.

Bai Yun has now left the den a total of four times to get water (and a few times to defecate). As time goes by, she will begin incorporating short meals into her daily schedule. Usually, her first feedings are short in duration, and she may even drag bamboo back to her den to eat in close proximity to the cub. Look for those den departures to get a good view of the cub, squirming on the den floor in Bai Yun’s absence.

Suzanne Hall is a panda research technician for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam.

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There are several of us on the Panda Team that have observed each birth and I think we all agree that this post-partum period has been a very calm one. When Hua Mei was born in 1999, Bai was constantly roused by the frequent vocal demands of her cub. Bai Yun was quick to meet her first cub’s every need. By constrast, Mei Sheng (born in 2003) seemed to be far less demanding. We heard far more ‘croaks’ and far fewer ‘squawks’ than we had with Hua Mei. We were also amazed at how well he tolerated Bai Yun’s frequent den departures in the first weeks of his life and he thrived under this less vigilant style of maternal care.

The cub that we are all so intently watching now is yet to show us the full extent of its temperament and personality. Our quick look at the cub two days ago, when Bai Yun left the den to get a drink of water, showed a strong-voiced, vigorous and big newborn bear. Since then, Bai has not left the den again, and both have settled into a more normal routine. Generally speaking, Bai Yun appears to be very relaxed, and the cub is responding with very long bouts of rest and numerous croak vocalizations, which signal ‘contentment’ to us.

Megan Owen is the research coordinator at the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation
View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam.

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