The panda facility is home to four regular keepers and five regular behavior research staff members. Interestingly, all but two of these people are women! Nearly all of us have been working with the pandas in some capacity or another for several years.

Now that the 24-hour postpartum period is over, I typically come in for early morning shifts that involve more computer work than panda watching. Although I still observe mom and cub three times per week (volunteer behavior researchers pick up the remainder of the shifts), I have many other responsibilities as well. I spend a lot of time working with a variety of datasets we have developed on different subjects: mother-infant relationships, sun bears, pandas, daily animal management, ambient noise, enrichment, scent marking, keeper feedback, and others. I also manage, recruit, and train our volunteer corps. It’s not so glamorous, but most of my work is more academic than you might think.

Today, I came into work at 06:00 and began the day by checking e-mail and phone messages to catch up with necessary correspondence. After assessing the status of our data (how much has been collected in the last few days? Is it summarized and ready to be entered into the computer? How much did my office assistant manage to enter in the computer yesterday?) and writing this blog, I’ll head into the back and check on Bai Yun and her youngster.

I’ll be observing them for two hours this morning… but I’ll be multitasking. I have a seasoned volunteer coming in to work with me to polish her skills in preparation for taking her own mother-and-cub observation shifts. I also have a new volunteer who is still learning the basic information required to become a competent observer for us. I’ll spend a lot of time talking with them and describing our ethogram and protocols (our list of behaviors and the rules for recording them) in light of what we see in the den. And during that session I’ll be manning the Panda Cam, trying to give you close up shots of the baby when possible, or a view of Gao Gao or Mei Sheng when baby is hidden.

After the observation, I’ll be back at my computer to take a look at my Wolong mother-infant dataset, which I am preparing for analysis. With the extensive amounts of data in that set, we’ll be able to write several scientific papers that will describe various aspects of the mother-infant relationship. That’s another part of my job, and one I’ll be spending more time with in the future: getting our information out there for other panda people to see. Our department presents the findings of the behavior staff constantly by generating reports, updates, and papers.

I often find myself missing the postpartum period, because it’s one of the few times of the year that I get to sit, hour after hour, and observe our animals. Funny, but while I sit in front of the computer working on my other tasks, I share a camaraderie with you folks out there: I, too, check the Panda Cam from time to time to see what is going on in the den!

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam
See our slideshow images of the cub’s latest exam
See video of the cub’s exams.

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For the first several years of our loan agreement, our facility housed Bai Yun and Shi Shi. You may know that Shi Shi was brought into captivity long after he had reached reproductive maturity. Because of the time of year he was found, bleeding and seriously injured, it was assumed he had been in a fight with another male, possibly over access to a female in estrus. After years of unsuccessful mating attempts with Bai Yun in captivity during which Shi Shi showed reluctance to be near our female, we came to wonder if his experiences in the wild had made him timid around estrus females. Thankfully, we were able to produce Hua Mei with AI (artificial insemination) techniques, so Shi Shi does have at least one offspring (and several grandbabies!); but we were not able to learn much from him about male breeding behavior.

Since Gao Gao’s arrival, things have been much different. Though he was raised most of his life in isolation from female pandas, we had hope that he would warm up quickly to Bai Yun. In the spring prior to his arrival in San Diego, Gao Gao was transferred to the Wolong breeding center where he was introduced, for the first time, to a female in heat. The female, Guo Guo, was young and inexperienced and knew little about how to act during a mating encounter. Gao Gao, equally inexperienced, was excited by her presence, but didn’t seem to know how to translate that excitement into a mating opportunity. When I observed them that spring, they reminded me of two flirtatious teenagers: full of energy but a bit shy and awkward in dealing with their instincts. They played, rough and tumble, for hours. Gao Gao would climb on the female’s back in a mock attempt at achieving a sexual mount, and proceed to bite her back and shoulders gently. She would roll on her back (not conducive to mating!) and paw at him, then return to all fours and press up against him. They were getting along well, but no mating ever occurred in the days they were together.

Would things be different when Gao Gao came to San Diego? He would still be an inexperienced male. Bai Yun could be counted on to have a strong estrus, but she too had never mated. How long would it take to overcome these obstacles?

Within minutes of their first introduction to each other in the spring of 2003, we had our answer. Gao Gao, smaller and a bit weaker than Bai Yun, showed tenacity in working with her as they attempted to perform the delicate mating dance without everything breaking down into a fight, as it so often did with Shi Shi. Despite their inexperience, they successfully copulated and that resulted in the birth of our Mei Sheng. In 2005, it happened again- twice- and our bears proved that they are now seasoned and would likely be able to produce cubs together for many years into the future.

To help Hua Mei learn a little of the mating dance herself before sending her home to China, we opened the howdy gate between Gao Gao and Hua Mei when she was in estrus in 2003. She was able to spend time across the gate from Gao Gao, getting familiar with the level of interest a breeding male might show her in the future. We can’t say for sure how much this helped her in Wolong, but we do know she mated successfully the first year she was given the opportunity to do so… which is more than I can say for Guo Guo!

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam
See our slideshow images of the cub’s latest exam
See video of the cub’s exams.

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Since the howdy door is a solid structure with a few small holes, they can’t come into direct contact which could open up the possiblility of physical danger, as when a fight might break out. Instead, should the encounters between them become heated, each animal has the opportunity to retreat from the door without the other panda being able to follow. We were not anticipating any such hostility, however.

Mei Sheng is at a stage in his life in which he is inclined to be highly social. In the past, we noted the same behavior in Hua Mei, in that she became very friendly and interactive with her keepers after she was weaned from Bai Yun. Subadults of this age are often housed together in Wolong, in large outdoor pens which give them the opportunity to enjoy some solitary time if they prefer. Mei Sheng appears to be no different than these other youngsters we have observed, demonstrating a social nature which drives him to be curious and engaging with the people around him. Would he be interested in his daddy, Gao Gao?

Gao Gao, unlike Mei Sheng, is in the prime of adult male life. By nature, adults are highly solitary. This is particularly important when your food source is a plant like bamboo. If you find a good stand to feed from, it helps not to have an entourage with you- your available food source will dwindle quickly when you have to share it among many. So pandas generally travel alone, unless they have a nursing cub in tow. And since nursing cubs are generally more interested in drinking milk than eating bamboo, they don’t represent a threat to a female’s bamboo stash.

Gao Gao is a bit unusual among adult males, however. He is very social with people, which may be a result of his captive upbringing. Many of you may know that he was brought into captivity as a very young cub, before he would have been weaned naturally. Such a start in life may have helped him develop a special affinity for his human caregivers.

So what happened when we opened the howdy door? Not much. For the first day or two, neither bear even noticed that the door was open! Eventually, Mei Sheng noticed… and as expected, he showed real curiosity by sitting at the gate and looking across to the other side. He visited the gate several times, sniffing intently, waiting patiently, and even scent marking the gate as “his”- a bold maneuver with a bigger male a few yards away! But Gao Gao didn’t indulge his firstborn, and continued to focus on his priority- filling his belly with bamboo. At the San Diego Zoo, Gao Gao doesn’t have to worry much about competition for his favorite food, but I guess he has his priorities!

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam
See our slideshow images of the cub’s latest exam
See video of the cub’s exams.

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We have some of the most interesting guests in the world and I think kids can ask some pretty interesting questions. They always want to know if pandas are as soft and cuddly as they look. (No, even though their fur looks like velvet it is coarse to the touch.) One young girl asked me if pandas could be good pets. No, I said, it would be very time-consuming to take care of these beautiful animals. First of all you would have to have an endless supply of bamboo to feed the bear and they poop over 20 times a day–that right there would convince me not to have a panda for a pet! Another young person asked if they were marsupials and kept their babies in pouches. I chuckled and said no, bears don’t have pouches.

There is so much excitement here at the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station with the new baby and visitors are anxious to see the little one. But it will be some time before she and Bai Yun will come out for us to view.

Kay Ferguson is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

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The interns work a regular 40-hour week, participating in all aspects of bird and facility care (except incubation and neonatal chick feeding). Interns prepare diets, maintain aviaries, make behavioral observations, perform grounds maintenance, collect browse and perching materials, and basically do everything the regular staff is expected to do. Interns learn quickly that successful maintenance of captive birds is all about the details, from where to place food pans to how to enter and exit an aviary…. important details all. Interns generally continue on their career paths in zoos, in field conservation projects, or oftentimes become qualified candidates for staff positions in the Hawaii program itself. It can be accurately stated that an internship not only helps prepare young biologists for a career in conservation, but also provides a key labor component for the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program. We couldn’t do what we do without them.

If you are interested in being an intern with the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, please contact us.

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

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…we can’t say for certain that the female knows it’s a different cub, but I am sure she can tell that there are different smells associated with it. The odors from human contact in the nursery (despite the staff’s use of gloves) must rub off to some degree. We know from our research that pandas can identify other pandas of different ages and variable reproductive status by smell, and their use of scent marking to communicate reveals that their sense of smell is important to them (which is true of all bears). So it’s a safe bet that a female can tell this isn’t the cub she was just holding… but it doesn’t seem to matter, as they always seem to get right back into the business of mothering as soon as the nursery cub is presented to them!

…They do seem to respond well to the sound of a baby crying. I have even observed a female resting quietly with her cub when a cub in the next room over began to wail. The mother of the contented cub sat up suddenly, attuned to the sound of the distant infant, and the female seemed worried and a bit agitated until that other cub calmed down. All the while, her own cub slept peacefully at her feet.

…as far as whether or not Bai Yun would recognize her past offspring: I think she might, but not in the way you might expect. She may recognize them as familiar, but she doesn’t have her heartstrings plucked by them anymore. Not long after completion of the weaning process with Hua Mei, Bai Yun encountered her first daughter across a tunnel fence. She barked and lunged at Hua Mei! Once the weaning process was over, Bai Yun no longer wanted to share her space with Mei, and preferred her solitary lifestyle. If you think about it, this makes sense… female pandas can give birth every two years in the wild, and as intensive as rearing a newborn cub is, it isn’t helpful to have a playful two year old climbing all over you in the process.

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

View Bai Yun and her cub on Panda Cam
See our slideshow images of the third exam
See video of the cub’s third exam

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How many panda moms are actually pregnant with twins at any one time? The number may actually be higher than we once thought. Until recently, we could not use tools like ultrasound to assess whether or not a female was carrying multiple babies. What we did know was that panda mothers frequently gave birth to multiple cubs.

Many years ago, when a captive female gave birth to twins, one was almost certainly doomed to die. Female pandas can only typically care for one cub at a time, so when they give birth to more than one they are unable to keep both alive. Advances in recent years have made it possible for nearly all healthy cubs born to a female to have a good chance of making it. This means the captive population of pandas is experiencing a boom, in that large numbers of cubs that would otherwise have died are now growing up to be healthy bears!

How has this boom been accomplished? First, we must credit the Chinese with their hand-rearing technique. They pioneered the twin-swapping procedure that many of you have heard about. It allows a twin to be pulled into the nursery and be raised for a few days by attentive nursery staff. The second cub remains with mother, getting her nurturing and milk. Every three days or so, the cubs are swapped so that the nursery cub can now spend a few days with its mother, and vice versa. Thus, both cubs benefit from mother’s caress and milk, but mom can devote her resources to one cub at a time in an exclusive fashion- just as it seems she is best suited to do.

Another factor in twin cub survivorship is the recent development of a suitable panda milk formula to be fed to the nursery-housed cubs. A blend of canine and human formula supplements, this milk has proven to be just what the veterinarian ordered to sustain the cubs in between opportunities to “bounce on their momma’s knee.”

One topic of interest in research is how it is that panda females decide which infant they will care for once multiples have been born to them. Do they always choose the firstborn? Do they choose the larger of two cubs? Do they prefer males to females? At this point, we can’t answer these questions for you. But rest assured that one of our goals is to find out!

Suzanne Hall is the panda research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

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