We have two exceptional students: Paul Donn, our 16–year-old male gentle giant, now weighing 409 pounds (185 kilograms); Maka, pictured above, is an 11-year-old rambunctious male weighing in at 240 pounds (109 kilograms). Both Maka and P.D. (short for Paul Donn) have kicked it up a notch and have learned “ear” and “forehead.” Both of these pungent-smelling pupils have mastered ten separate behaviors, averaging about one behavior per week. That is truly exceptional!

Each gorilla has his or her own learning curve. Once they learn the first few basic behaviors independently, interaction and cooperation becomes an individual effort. For some, like our resident breeding male, Memba, and Jessica, going into a small space like the chute is not their favorite thing to do. Initially it was a big deal for them to stay in the chute too long. Slowly they have become desensitized to the idea and every day they get more comfortable being in the chute just a little longer.

On the other hand, “The Chute” is like a second home to P.D. and Maka. They thrive on the attention (and treats!) they get from the keepers. We try to personalize each training diet to cater to individual pallets. The end result is a very polite gorilla and a very happy keeper.

I thought it would be of interest for you gorilla fans if I share each gorilla’s favorite training food items:
· Memba- ripe banana, figs
· Jessica- grapes, ripe banana
· Mandazzi- anything sweet
· Maka- anything sweet
· Alvilla- banana, nectar
· Ndjole- figs, ripe papaya
· Ndjia- grapes, figs, green papaya
· Paul Donn- banana baby food, cantaloupe, strawberries
· Azizi- banana, oranges, grapes
· Imani -banana, figs, grapes

Juan Fernandez is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Juan’s previous blog, New Troop Members.

The panda viewing areas themselves are equipped with fans that can blow cool mist into the exhibits. Keepers can and do bring ice into the enclosures in various forms: as small treats, large “couches” for the bears to lounge on, or crushed ice replacing the water in their pools, perhaps with food treats hidden within. At the rear of the exhibit areas are off-exhibit “bedrooms,” and the doors can be opened, allowing the animals to nap on the cool concrete in air-conditioned comfort. Should this happen, the bears may be out of view or visible only via Panda Cam or the closed-circuit monitor in the viewing line. Their indoor bedroom “suites,” located within the research building, also have air-conditioned bedrooms, which, of course, can also be heated in the winter months.

In the wild, giant pandas are generally found at elevations between 4,000 and 11,500 feet (1,200 and 3,500 meters), and travel up and down the mountains as seasons change, moving lower in the colder weather and higher in the warmer months, although evidence suggests that pandas existed in much more varied climatic areas around much of China in earlier times.

The health and well-being of the pandas (Bai Yun is pictured above) and all the animals here at the San Diego Zoo is of paramount importance and you can be sure that our dedicated keeper staff monitors the condition of the animals in their care carefully and constantly, especially as weather conditions change.

Ellie Rosenbaum is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

Today was a milestone in their lives: they were given access to the release chute for the first time. We have developed a plan that will enable them to be released into the big Lion Camp exhibit with Oshana, and this is the first step. Oshana was happy to have access to the chute. There are big windows on that side of the house, and she has always liked to hang out there. However, she soon realized that she couldn’t see the cubs from the chute and proceeded to carry both of them to the bedroom threshold where she could keep an eye on them. With the babies under her watchful eye, she then proceeded to relax and enjoy her new environment. Both cubs soon made their way into the chute as well and thoroughly explored the new space before settling down to nurse and nap.

Jennifer asked about our plans to introduce the cubs to the exhibit. The first step has been taken with the chute access. We also have to be certain the cubs are coordinated enough to be able to avoid the edge of the moat. We are being very conservative in regards to the safety of the cubs, but with luck they will be able to go outside in the next few weeks. Jennifer also asked if the cubs will be staying at the Wild Animal Park as adults: most probably they will not stay with us, but will go to other zoological institutions as breeders. As their parents were born in Africa, their genes will be valuable contributions to any breeding program.

Carol H. asked if the cubs will be participating in our Adopt-An-Animal program. I am not sure about this one, but I will find out and let everyone know.

I know how anxious everyone is to see the newest members of the pride. I will do my best to keep the progress reports coming!

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

Some days the veterinarians need to check on animals while they are still in their bedrooms. Clyde thinks they must want to look at him. If he’s not in the mood for visitors, he will put a box or barrel over his head and sit like that until it is time to go out. Once it’s his turn, he moves quickly to the door, sometimes grabbing a burlap bag that he has been carrying around for the last several days, and heads down the hall. In the chute, Clyde is a perfect participant. If he is feeling relaxed, he doesn’t mind if I close the chute door and he presents every part of his body that I ask for. But if anyone other than me has been in the bedrooms, he thinks there might be a medical procedure coming and looks over his shoulder frequently. On those days he won’t let me close the chute door. Since he needs to know that not everything that happens is about him, I try to get him used to other people around. Regardless, Clyde is very obliging when it comes to training sessions.

Clyde knows all the behaviors. Since he is so big, weighing in at over 280 pounds (127 kilograms), he fills up the chute. The rings the other orangutans use to station are set too close for him, so he holds onto the bars further out. When asked to turn around, he whips around so quickly he is a blur of flying hair.

No matter what is going on, be it other people present, siamangs singing, or receiving an injection, Clyde always comes back to finish the training session. On the days the siamangs are singing, Clyde keeps peeking at their bedroom, momentarily leaving the chute. But he returns and presents whatever had been asked for. On days of medical procedures when Clyde needs to be sedated, we ask him for his shoulder, and then inject his arm. He becomes upset and turns around, but then will present his shoulder again so we can show him the syringe and give him a pat. He’s a very good boy.

Clyde has completed his session, is rewarded, and released onto the exhibit to join the rest of the group. I’ll go up top to check everyone and get away from the siamangs. They’ve started singing. None of the orangutans like being inside, let alone working in the chute, when the siamangs are singing. Neither do I. The sound is deafening and tends to go on for 15 minutes. I’ll have to tell you about them next time.

Yvette Kemp is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

It can feel overwhelming as one individual to think of ways that you can make a difference, but you can! I think one of the best tools we have is communication. When you communicate with another person you have an opportunity to educate them. Even if you talk to just one person about, say, koalas (or your favorite animal, plant, insect, bird, reptile, or fish) and why it is important for that person to care about our environment and the inhabitants that share our world with us, you are starting to make an impression. Besides these blogs, I also talk to a lot of my friends, family, and even strangers that I meet in my daily life about my work. Everyone wants to know about the cute cuddly koalas and what it is that I am doing with them. And you know what? They usually end up learning something new from me! You would be surprised about how much you can educate another person about something you are passionate about; people enjoy listening.

Zoos also play a large role in educating people about the wonderful inhabitants of this world. Now you are probably saying to yourself, “But this is not ‘helping’ the koalas.” Well, actually you are! You are bringing another person’s attention to the issues of koalas and maybe the next time they are channel surfing they will stop and watch a program on koala sanctuaries. Or maybe they will tell someone else and then that person will tell someone else. Or maybe you will end of influencing someone to help with researching koalas in the wild or donating money to koala-based conservation programs. Or maybe they will go to the San Diego Zoo and look for the koalas. Are you starting to get the picture?

So, Megan, go out there and tell your classmates and anyone else you want to educate about koalas. You never know where it may take you!

Jennifer Tobey is a Research Fellow in the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES. She is giving a talk titled “Koala Chatter” at the Zoo on September 13.

Here’s more information about ways you can help wildlife.
You can also help animals through the Zoo’s Adopt-An-Animal program or by becoming a member of the Zoological Society of San Diego.

So on that non-note, we’ll send Karen out next.

Karen is in the third bedroom from the chute that leads to the exhibit and right next door to Clyde. Depending on what kind of mood she is in, she’ll either go straight for the chute or not. Sometimes Karen gets upset that she was not released onto exhibit first. How do I know? The first clue tends to be when she tries to spit water at me every time I walk by her room when releasing the other orangutans. This can become pretty tricky since one of the hallway door controls is located right in front of her bedroom. That means I am an easy target for a few seconds. If she’s just slightly upset, I can reassure her that her turn is soon by rubbing her stomach. If she’s more upset, I have to dodge the stream of water heading my way. She’s got pretty good aim, too!

Other times, Karen may not be quite ready to go out yet, so she visits Clyde for a few minutes since they share a small section of the back hallway. She’ll just sit there and kind of look at what’s in his room, probably comparing bedroom items. Once she is ready, she calmly meanders down the hallway and stops before entering the chute. Karen usually waits for me to get in position to ask her to enter the chute. We both know what we are supposed to do and she plays it by the rules.

Karen is a funny girl. She’s smart, cute, has beautiful light colored eyes, and wants things done her way. She stations in the chute but doesn’t want the door closed. If she wants her stomach rubbed, she pushes it forward and does this up and down half jumping motion. I rub her tummy. Then I can ask for all her behaviors: station, hand, foot, mouth, open, turn around, ear, shoulder. She’s good and knows what she’s doing: training me. She likes the fruit as a reward but I think she likes the attention the most.

Once we are done, I open the door to the exhibit and she runs back towards the hallway! Then she scoots forward, tries to see if there is anything interesting going on outside. Then, sometimes, something grabs her attention and she’s out in seconds. Other times, she decides she’s not ready and sits in the hallway. It’s her choice. If she decides to stay, I leave the door to the exhibit open and start bringing the next orangutan down the hallway. Usually Karen has left before we get to the chute, but not always. If she’s still there, I close the door to the exhibit, then bring the next orangutan to the chute, while Karen hangs out in the hallway. Lately she’s been leaving:, the days are nice and there are fun exhibit things to do.

It’s very close to 9 a.m. now and only Clyde is left. I wonder what he’ll do?

Yvette Kemp is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

The biggest news is that, finally, our cubs have names. The male cub, previously called “cub A,” will be known as Bakari, meaning “one of noble promise” in Swahili. The little female, dubbed “cub B,” will be called Abena, which means “born on Tuesday” - which they certainly were!

As the cubs become more active, we are seeing two very different personalities emerge. Little Abena is the go-getter; much more active than her brother, Mom is always having to keep track of her expeditions into the far reaches of their off-exhibit bedroom area, and often goes to retrieve the baby when she gets too far away. Brother Bakari is a sleepy boy: he sleeps for long periods of time, wakes to nurse, toddles around and plays a bit, then back to sleep. The cubs are different in appearance, as well. Bakari is larger and is a much lighter color than his sister. Abena is darker, smaller, and has more spots than her brother. The big achievement for this week was learning to climb over the 6-inch (15-centimeter) threshold between rooms without falling over; Abena figured it out first, with brother Bakari not far behind.

We are thrilled at the progress the little ones are making, and are especially proud of Oshana, who continues to be an exemplary mother. We all look forward to future milestones in their lives as they become healthy, beautiful members of the pride.

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

Note: The lion cubs cannot be viewed by the public yet. We’ll keep you posted!

Su Lin only nurses a few times a day now. Although we don’t observe her overnight, some of you Panda Cam faithful have noted that she often comes down from her treetop perches under cover of darkness, finds her mother, and enjoys a nursing bout in the wee hours of the morning. Keepers have also seen a pattern of nursing in the early morning hours, when the bears are waking up for their day. Afternoons also seem to be a good time for a play bout and some suckling. All told, two to three nursing bouts per day seem to be the norm. This is pretty consistent with what we observed with Mei Sheng and Hua Mei at this age.

By age one, the giant panda cub is capable of routinely processing small amounts of bamboo. Su Lin is no exception. Our volunteer observers note bamboo feeding from the cub every now and then, when they catch her awake. She also enjoys snacking on her mother’s leaf eater biscuits or veggies when she can get them. However, she is not yet capable of sustaining herself without milk. In the next few months she’ll develop greater proficiency with bamboo, and by 18 months she’ll be ready to wean.

Although we haven’t yet discussed a weaning strategy for Su Lin, our experience has been that a gradual weaning process works well. In the past, we selected a window of time in which we would close a door between Bai Yun and her cub for gradually lengthening periods of time. On the first day, perhaps the door is closed two hours. A few days later, time apart is increased. Eventually, after a few weeks, the doors between them are closed permanently. Bai Yun’s comfort level is factored into the process. It seems she is always more ready and willing to move on than her cubs are. This makes sense to me: what youngster wouldn’t want to keep all of its mother’s attention indefinitely? And you mothers out there probably understand Bai Yun’s willingness to see her offspring become independent. Although the “oohs” and “ahhs” generated by the interactions between mother and cub are compelling, it is important for both Bai Yun and Su Lin to continue moving forward in the way they would in the wild, towards the next phases in each of their independent lives.

But for now, we can still observe Su Lin growing under her mother’s guidance, developing the skills and experience she’ll need to be a successful adult. No doubt her time with Bai Yun will prepare her to be a good mother to her own cubs some day, to select the best bamboo, to feed and forage efficiently, and to cope with any stress appropriately. These life lessons will pay dividends in the future, when Su Lin’s time with Bai Yun is but a thing of the past.

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation.

Watch the pandas on Panda Cam!

In her best motherly manner, Bai Yun has been insuring that Su Lin experiences the water first-hand. Su Lin, however, does not appear to be at all pleased with this: Mom pushes her in and she races out as quickly as possible, climbing up above her mother and shaking off this “alien substance.” Bai Yun continued, yesterday morning, to pull, push, and drag Su Lin into the pool several times; Su Lin clambered out as quickly as she could each time. Bai Yun even stood splashing in the pool while watching her cub, perhaps an attempt to entice Su Lin in. As it was in the early days of “water lessons” for her brother, Mei Sheng, this does not appear to be a favorite game, although colleagues report that she has been exploring the pool alone, and more comfortably, while Bai Yun sleeps.

Pandas will enter the water to cool off and even Shi Shi, our former male-in-residence, had been observed sitting in the pool, splashing with his forepaws and wiggling his feet. Water interaction increases among mature females as they approach their brief mating season. This may be a way for them to spread their scent farther on the ground to notify any males in the area of their seasonal changes, so this is an important new medium for Su Lin to learn about.

Whatever the purpose - and researchers are studying these behaviors at many facilities around the world to answer questions such as these - Su Lin and Bai Yun are in the next phase of the cub-rearing process. It’s going to be an exciting few months as this little girl is prepared by her mother in so many ways for life on her own.

Ellie Rosenbaum is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

Watch Su Lin and Bai Yun daily on Panda Cam.

First, a little background on this charming fox species. There are two major populations in the wild, one in South Africa and one in East Africa. They are not considered endangered at this time. Interestingly, they are the only canids that have almost completely abandoned vertebrate prey in favor of insects, mostly termites and grasshoppers. They will occasionally take a small lizard or mouse, but these make up less than 10 percent of their diet in the wild. They make their home in burrows that they dig themselves, or will move into an already existing hole. They are small, ranging from 9 to 13 pounds (4 to 6 kilograms). Their huge batlike ears are their most prominent feature, and they have thick luxurious coats in shades of black and gray. The feet are black, and they also have a black mask across the face.

Several years ago we received three foxes: one male and two females. All were adults. The male was introduced to the females and when they had formed social bonds they were installed in the warthog exhibit, where they began digging a burrow inside a ring of rocks and logs that we provided so they would have a secure area that excluded the warthogs. No breeding behavior was ever seen and as they were eight years old we pretty much gave up on having a litter of kits. One day a few months ago one of the females began to appear ill; she was treated at the veterinary hospital, where it was discovered she had a tumor in her abdomen. Sadly, there was nothing that could be done for her and she passed away. After her death, it was discovered that she had no uterus. There was nothing in her records to give us a clue, and this just reinforced the thought that we would not be seeing any young from the remaining female.

A couple of months later, we noticed the other female, Desdamona, had an increased appetite. We notified the nutrition staff and they authorized a diet increase. However, her appetite continued to increase, and we soon realized she was pregnant. By the time she showed physical signs, she was very far along. Her voluminous coat had masked her condition until just a few weeks before she gave birth. The gestation period is fairly short, only 60 to 70 days. As soon as her condition became obvious, we increased her diet yet again. As you can imagine, we were all very excited at the thought of having kits at long last, as we had pretty much given up on the idea. Our theory is that the dominant female who died was supressing the subordinate female’s reproductive cycle. Often only the dominant female will reproduce in social mammal species.

Irregardless of the reason, we were all thrilled at this turn of events and examined Desi every morning to ascertain whether or not she was still pregnant. One morning three weeks ago she suddenly appeared to have shrunk like a deflated balloon, and her appetitite again increased. She and the male, Biko, began taking turns in the burrow. You would rarely see both of them at one time. The male fox has a large role in raising the young, and Biko was doing his duty to perfection. We knew it would be awhile before we saw the kits. It was obvious that they were there - Desi’s mammary glands were very enlarged and obviously working overtime. She was devouring an amazing amount of food; lactation uses lots of calories.

Finally, on June 6, we got the first look at the kits. One of the keepers was feeding the adults near the burrow as usual, and saw three little heads emerge. The babies were marked with the black mask and feet, just like the adults, but their fur was very short. They were about 5 inches (12 centimeters) long, not including the tail, and were very lively, showing interest in the mealworms we tossed to the adults. Fox kits grow fast, and are fully mature at only eight to nine months old. These little guys were not wasting any time. The following day there was a bonus - four little fox heads poked out of the hole! No wonder Mom was so hungry all the time, with four mouths to feed.

As of now, the kits have not ventured out of the rock ring that surrounds their burrow. It shouldn’t be long until they begin exploring the rest of the exhibit. These foxes are most active early and late in the day, and at night. I will post when Desdamona allows them to leave their safe haven, and the best times to view them. Incidentally, the warthogs that share the exhibit with the family should not pose a problem or threat to the kits. They have peacefully coexisted with the adults, and additionally sleep in their bedroom every night, giving the foxes the run of the exhibit. I expect we will see little fox footprints outside the rock ring in the mornings before we actually see them out in the daylight hours.

Events like this remind us how fortunate we are to work with these wonderful animals and share them with others, and also to never say never! You just don’t know when the animals will surprise you.

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

See video of the bat-eared fox kits.