Mina, being the independent cat, simply explored the exhibit and found her own pumpkin. Izu unfortunately needed a little encouragement from his keepers to find his own pumpkin, which he finally did, but eventually the three cats came together to play keep away with remnants of what were once whole pumpkins. The most entertaining were Oshana and Mina together, particularly when they flew into and over the Land Rover with one holding half a pumpkin in her mouth. It was very amusing seeing one cat on the roof of the Land Rover protecting her orange prize while the other peered up at her from inside the truck. Looking down at Lion Camp from the Balloon Safari ride it was apparent the cats enjoyed this seasonal enrichment item because there were bits of orange all over the exhibit. I felt sorry for the keepers who would have to clean up that mess!

But the lions weren’t the only ones to get pumpkins. The western Rueppell’s vultures and the hooded vultures in the Heart of Africa exhibit had pumpkins prepared. But these were filled with something more ghoulish, including whole rats, cow tongue and cow spleens. Sound appetizing? Well, for the vultures it was like finding chocolate or lollipops! Watching them peck through the jack-o-lanterns’ eyes and mouths definitely said Happy Halloween.

Yadira Galindo is a public relations representative for the Zoological Society of San Diego.

See video of the Halloween fun!
Read blogs about the lions of Lion Camp in the Keeper Stories category.

One of our training goals for Kenai is to be comfortable with the public in as many settings as possible. These include walking through the Zoo when it is open so our visitors can experience an up-close-and-personal encounter with a wild, exotic animal. He also makes appearances in the animal shows, walks through special events or parties at the Zoo, and does live TV interviews.

Kenai enjoys all of his activities but favors the walks through the Zoo the most. One reason might be because he loves to look deep inside the bushes for trash. He covets every piece that he finds, sniffing, biting, sometimes scent marking, but usually just exposing the debris to us so that we can put the trash where it belongs, in the trash can. Among some of the treasures that he has found include a roll of duct tape, a baseball hat, sunglasses, plastic soda or water bottles, plastic cups, and even plastic bags. This natural curiosity of Kenai’s comes from the wolf’s style of foraging for food. They are opportunistic when searching for their meals and are willing to experiment with items they encounter. As trainers, we never cease to be amazed at what he has exposed for us to clean up. We appreciate his environmental approach and should consider putting him on the payroll!

Maureen O. Duryee is an animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo’s Hunte Amphitheater.

Bai Yun has always been a big panda. Her daddy is Pan Pan, who was always one of the largest males in Wolong while in his prime. These days, Pan Pan’s offspring are the big boys on the block… his large son Da Di has taken over the titles of “Largest” and “Best Breeder.” Other sons (like the National Zoo’s Tian Tian) have also grown up to be formidable animals. Clearly, Bai Yun has the genes to be of above average size.

Most of the females in Wolong are smaller than the average sized male. They aren’t as tall or as long. When I visited Wolong for the first time in 2000, I was very surprised at my meeting with Bai Yun’s mother, Dong Dong. I expected her to be a big girl, like her daughter. But Dong Dong was small in stature. Only her belly was large, a common feature of older, mature panda females. As the females age, they seem to become less muscular and more “soft”… not unlike people!

There are a few big Wolong females, however. A wild-caught female, Ying Ying, is tall and long and would give Bai Yun a run for her money. And one of the females born at Wolong, Fei Fei, is also of good size. She’s round and robust and… she’s one of Pan Pan’s daughters. Even among the examples of large females, Pan Pan’s name seems to come up!

Gao Gao is on the small size for males, weighing in at a mere 79 kg (174 lbs). Compared to the males at Wolong, his size is more comparable to that of the females. As a wild-caught male from an area of China far from Wolong, his gene pool is clearly different from that of the larger Pan Pan. But in captive breeding, differences are to be celebrated. A varied gene pool in the captive population means you are less likely to run into inbreeding problems, which can result in undesirable medical and reproductive issues.

As we have discovered, size doesn’t matter in Gao Gao’s case. He has proven himself–twice–to be an excellent breeder, even in the face of handling a much larger mate in Bai Yun. It remains to be seen whether his offspring will more resemble their father or their mother with regard to size. Mei Sheng, currently 68 kg (149 lbs), will not reach his mature size and weight for a few years yet. And our new little girl has a very long way to go before we can make such an assessment. I guess we’ll all have to stay tuned!

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

View the pandas on Panda Cam.

The look of “awe” in their eyes restores that moment I first saw the giant panda. In some strange, vicarious kinda way I experience that moment with them. Someone from Chicago remarks about how many times they have seen the giant panda on the Panda Cam, but never imagined the wonder of looking into their eyes for real. That’s when I get that wonderful moment and that “glance” as they exit.

Gary Voyles is a visitor assistance officer at the San Diego Zoo.

View the pandas on Panda Cam.

Mei Sheng is a boisterous two year old who spends more of his days active and exploring than one would find with a more mature panda. He climbs high in his trees and climbing structures, all the better to get a vantage point for viewing the world around him. It is also true that younger pandas often seek refuge in these high places in order to be more secure, as the panda’s few natural predators are less able to grab a youngster when he is high off the ground.

Gao Gao, father to our cub, is doing fine in his space, spending most of his time enjoying his bamboo and resting atop the large den his enclosure is equipped with. Yesterday I observed him with an enrichment item- a large blue bobbin- as he turned the object repeatedly in his paws and bit the hard plastic playfully. I tried to capture this on the panda cam for you… hopefully some of you got a chance to see it.

One source of excitement for both boys in the last month or so has been the open “howdy gate” between them. There was a porous barrier through which they could see and smell each other if they chose to interact at the gate. As it turned out, Mei Sheng was very interested in this opportunity. After an encounter with Gao Gao, Mei Sheng began checking the gate several times each day hoping to find his daddy there, ready for a play bout. He clearly looked forward to seeing him. Gao Gao, for his part, was more interested in his bamboo, but did make time to interact with his firstborn from time to time. The interactions have been described as friendly and, according to some, sweet. Gao Gao was once noted as nibbling playfully on Mei Sheng’s coat through the barrier. No aggression was seen.

The howdy gate will need to be closed often now, as the facility is experiencing some minor renovations and adjustments in preparation for the eventual arrival of our new cub on exhibit. Visitors to the panda station may soon notice the development of a new outdoor lair in the area where Mei Sheng is currently exhibited. The lair will provide the bears with a new shelter for those windy, cold or rainy days when the trees aren’t quite adequate. We also hope to include more plantings in the enclosures to provide the bears with more natural items and substrates. We just hope Mei Sheng doesn’t get excited by all these changes and inflict a little pandemonium on the enclosures… if he is like his mother, he’ll spend time redecorating, much to our chagrin. At least he’ll have fun doing it!

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

View Bai Yun and her cub, or one of “the boys” on Panda Cam.

For several reasons (avian flu being one of them), chicken is not a preferred food item for tigers. Also, we do not feed whole meat pieces on a daily basis because they are deficient in several vitamins and minerals and do not represent a complete diet. I have offered ground horsemeat to Sumatran tigers at another institution, and it seemed to me that the tigers really did prefer the taste of the beef-based diet over the horse-based.

As far as training goes for tiger cubs Mata and Rimba, I use zoo carnivore meatballs as rewards for performing behaviors correctly. But I will also use the same meatballs to give any necessary medications. Rimba needed to take antibiotics after his physical exam in September because he had a small growth removed from inside his left ear. The biopsy done on the growth showed that it wasn’t anything to be concerned about, but I still needed to give him antibiotics for five days to make sure that his ear healed properly. The meatballs worked wonders, and he took all of his pills with no problems!

Bridget Mulholland is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo’s Tiger River exhibit.

Gerenuk are among the most beautiful and fascinating of all antelope. They are very tall and slender, with huge ears and eyes, but the most striking thing about them is their feeding habits. These antelope are browsers, living on leaves and vegetation, and are adapted to exploit a feeding zone unused by other browsers. The tops of the trees are for the giraffes, the lowest vegetation is for smaller animals, and the level 6 to 8 feet up belong to the gerenuk. How do they do it?

Gerenuk have developed adaptations which allow them to stand completely erect on their hind legs. These include modifications of the skeleton, muscles and vertebral column. They can balance without support for short periods of time, but usually have a front hoof touching a branch or trunk for support. When first seeing a gerenuk feed, most people are taken aback. They truly look as though their hips are double jointed.

The new calf, a male, was born to a female who was also born at the Wild Animal Park. She is an experienced mother, and we expect her to do a fine job with this little one. Her distinguishing characteristic is a crooked leg, the legacy of an injury sustained many years ago. Our wonderful veterinarians pinned her leg and she has done well ever since. The sire is a male named Norton who came to us from the Los Angeles Zoo. He happens to have been hand raised and is a real character. The new calf will spend a few days indoors bonding with his dam, and then will go out with the rest of the herd.

Folks have commented that it must be great to see so many animals born, but the facts are that we actually see fewer births than you’d think. Most animals like to give birth at night or in secluded areas, so often we find the new kids the following morning. Today was truly a special occasion - we were there at the right time to see the calf born!

Marcia Redding is a senior mammal keeper at the Wild Animal Park.

Etosha has become very fond of the den we have prepared for her, filling it up with her favorite enrichment items: pieces of shredded cardboard box and feed bags, sturdy plastic balls, and anything else she can cram in. She also stashed her bone from yesterday in there.

M’bari and Etosha are separated now, but can visit through an introduction screen. They both seem to have accepted this change without any stress, and it is important for the safety of the cubs until we know how M’bari will react.

So, now it’s a waiting game! I will be sure to post any developments asap!

Marcia Redding is a senior mammal keeper at the Wild Animal Park.

The tigers at the San Diego Zoo were originally believed to be Indochinese tigers Panthera tigris corbetti. This new study, however, split the Indochinese subspecies into two: the Malayan tiger, found on the Malaysian Peninsula, and the Indochinese tiger, living in more northern areas from Myanmar (formerly Burma) to southwest China.

As it turns out, all six of our tigers are actually Malaysian tigers! Awang Relak and Mek Degong (the proud parents of cubs Mata and Rimba) came to the San Diego Zoo from Zoo Melaka in Malaysia. Belang and Danai, our other pair, are actually descendents of tigers brought to the United States from peninsular Malaysia as well.

The splitting of the Indochinese subspecies into two means that each of the subspecies only have numbers of wild tigers in the hundreds. Estimates of the Malaysian tiger population do vary, but the numbers could be anywhere between 600 and 900 animals left in the wild.

Bridget Mulholland is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo’s Tiger River exhibit.

After first discussing many different kinds of communication (such as tactile, olfactory, and auditory), Yvette introduced us to several of the monkeys that reside in Monkey Trails, and we were able to compare the ways monkeys communicate with the ways teenage girls and boys communicate!

The Angolan colobus monkeys and black mangabeys put on a terrific show for us. The colobus monkeys showed us who controlled the hierarchy in the enclosure and how simple physical presence can often be enough to dictate who is in charge and who gets to sit in the best spot. Most primates prefer to stare, show off their teeth, or try to appear larger in order to get what they want. Fights can result in life-threatening injuries, and often occur only as a last resort.

One of the golden-bellied mangabeys, Raffi, holds a special place in his heart for Yvette, and will flirt mercilessly with her when she walks by. We watched him tip his head, turn his back, and lip-smack, all methods of monkey flirting that the girls thought was quite cute, as well.

The mandrills and lesser spot-nosed guenons share an enclosure. P.J., the male mandrill (pictured here with Yvette), is a fine example of colorful markings designed to attract potential mates. He is also nearly twice the size of Dora and Angie, the female mandrills that live with him, and they think he is absolutely wonderful! The girls thought P.J.’s coloring was a little over the top, but a discussion of middle school boys’ use of hair gel and saggy pants followed. The girls decided P.J. wasn’t too far off the mark, after all!

Yvette did a wonderful job introducing the girls to the concept of visual communication, and helped them to see that they engage in it every day themselves. From hairdos to clothing choices to facial expressions, there is more to communicating than just using a cell phone, and the girls realized they are more adept at it than they thought!

Special thanks to Yvette for her time and efforts! She has presented for GIS on several occasions and always does a superb job! Kudos!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.