Several days ago, we began allowing the family access to the section of the chute closest to the exhibit. The cubs were very curious about the release door, even though it was still closed. Some time was spent unsuccessfuly trying to insert chubby paws into the tiny crack at the bottom of the door.

When the door finally opened this morning, two wide-eyed cubs immediately attempted to venture out to explore their new world. However, mom Oshana had other ideas. It has been several months since Oshana has been on exhibit; we have given her the option to go out for brief periods without the cubs, but she has always declined these opportunities. The area around Lion Camp has undergone some changes due to the ongoing construction of the new transportation system; as well, Oshana seemed surprised to see the big yellow orb of the Balloon Safari. She had been accustomed to the balloon before the cubs were born, but she seemed to have forgotten about it while inside with her babies.

The first cub to venture out was immediately pulled back inside by her anxious mother. After a few minutes, Oshana did allow both cubs out on exhibit, but kept a very close eye on them, never allowing them to venture too far from the security of the house. As the cubs became more confident, they began to run, play, and wrestle with each other. It became a real challenge for Oshana to keep watch, as the cubs often ran in opposite directions. Oshana has a vocalization that she uses to call the cubs to her; normally they respond immediately by running to her. Apparently, the excitement of being outside caused the cubs to become “temporarily deaf,” and ignore her calls.

Eventually, Oshana began to relax a bit, and become less concerned over the cubs’ antics. However, she did have definite ideas as to how long the first outing should be. After about an hour and a half, she picked Abena up and carried her back inside. As she returned to fetch Bakari, Abena had climbed back out the door. This continued for a few minutes, until both babies were finally tired enough to stay inside for a nap.

For the next week or so we will be giving Oshana and the cubs access to the exhibit each morning. The best chance of seeing them will be to arrive as soon as the Wild Animal Park opens and head straight to Lion Camp. It is difficult to predict how long Oshana will allow the cubs to stay outside at this point. We will continue to give them the option of coming inside until Oshana is more comfortable having her babies in the exhibit. Eventually, we will be able to post exhibit times so everyone can be assured of seeing our little bundles of joy.

Bakari and Abena are beginning a new chapter in their lives. Come and see them, and enjoy their antics as they discover the wonders of their new world!

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

Here’s video of the cubs’ debut.
Read Marcia’s previous blog, Lion Cubs’ First Exam.

Belang and Danai both came to us from the Cincinnati Zoo where they were born. They arrived at the San Diego Zoo when they were youngsters and have been here ever since. Over the years, Danai gave birth to six cubs (in two litters, three cubs in each) that Belang sired. Danai was a great mom to her first litter, but for some reason she showed no interest in her second litter. The three cubs (one female and two males) needed to be hand-raised at the Zoo’s nursery. Some of you may remember seeing Satu, Dua, and Tiga out on exhibit in Tiger River learning the ropes with their keepers!

Because Belang and Danai have had six cubs who have all grown and been sent to other zoos, they are well represented genetically in the captive population. Since we did not want them to breed again, they were separated from each other. Although tigers are solitary animals in the wild, Belang and Danai really do seem to enjoy each other’s company. So, two months ago, our veterinarians performed a tubal ligation through a laparoscope on Danai so she would no longer be able to become pregnant. After she healed from the surgery, we waited for her to come into estrous for the reintroduction.

Although Belang and Danai always got along well in the past, we wanted to be sure that for this reunion the two would be thinking about something other than fighting! Sure enough, the reintroduction went very smoothly. After lots of chuffing, which is a tiger greeting, Belang and Danai bred several times. Tiger breeding involves a lot of loud vocalization and appears to be fairly aggressive as the male bites the back of the female’s neck, and then the female turns around and swipes at the male with claws out. But we were not terribly worried as we watched Belang and Danai, as this is just natural tiger behavior and rarely ends with any injuries.

Now that Danai is out of estrous, the breeding has stopped, but the two continue to get along very well. Stop by Tiger River in the afternoon or evening to see our tiger pair together again!

Bridget Mulholland is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Once again I led an Earthwatch Expedition to St. Bees Island (July 13 to 24), with volunteers from as far away as Florida and Washington State, and plenty of places in between. We even had a New Zealander on the trip, and she was very adept at climbing the hills of St. Bees Island!

This trip, I set out to ask some very simple but interesting questions that are related to the work that Fred Bercovitch and Jen Tobey (both of the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES) will be focussed on later this year. These questions included whether koalas changed trees during the day time and how far they would go to find a food tree at night.

So, with 10 volunteers, 20 radio-collared koalas and 2 radio recievers, we set out to track the koalas morning, afternoon, and night! This gave us some data on the occurence of tree changes during the day and let us break down the movement of koalas into several periods.

Interestingly, koalas moved from one tree to another during the day on about one-quarter of all observations. Not all the animals moved and it’s too early to tell whether it is mostly males, females, or young koalas, but we have an interesting base to start working from to find out why the koalas would change trees during the day. Two tracking teams actually saw koalas walking across the ground during their tracking work, so they had a real treat!

The preliminary data from this trip suggest that there could be a difference in the distance koalas move when going from a day (roosting?) tree to night (feeding?) trees compared to when they move from a night tree to a day tree, but it will be a few more trips before any of this will become clear. And then, of course, there are seasonal (and other) effects that may influence the patterns we see.

As part of our tracking, we found several new koalas, which are now named “Hurricane” and “Indigo.” (A koala named Digger is pictured above.) Hurricane is a 20.3 pound (9.2 kilogram) male, quite large for our site, so I will be interested to see what he does come mating season. Quite a few males were bellowing during the trip, something that I’m sure Jen Tobey will be keen to follow up on soon! (See Jen’s blog, Motorcycles and Koalas.) Indigo is an 11-pound (5-kilogram) female, but she had no pouch or back young, so maybe this will be her first season?

We had some pretty wild weather, so the boat trip from the island was quite “exciting,” to say the least. Although a fair bit of equipment became airborne from time to time, nothing was broken and we all got back safely.

Once again, I was sad to say goodbye to my volunteers; they just learn all the skills and become proficient koala trackers and I have to send them back to their “real” jobs! I think I will miss this crew most for their cooking; we were treated to some traditional American delicacies. The one I liked best was “cobbler” (apparently it’s a Southern treat)!

Dr. Bill Ellis is a Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellow for CRES. Here’s more information about his koala project.

Read Bill’s previous blog, Welcome Rain for Koalas of St. Bees Island.

Each time one of our panda cubs has a birthday, the San Diego Zoo’s Forage Department provides them with these beautiful treats, and every year the ice cakes get more extravagant and creative. They are truly impressive. We will be having something like this for Mei Sheng on August 19 (he turns 3!), so keep your eyes peeled for the next creative birthday “cake” provided by our Forage Department.

Megan Owen is a research laboratory coordinator for the Office of Giant Panda Conservation/CRES.

View all the birthday action on Panda Cam.