Additionally, the cub is a representative of a species in dire need of conservation assistance. The Bornean sun bear may be the subspecies of bear more likely to go extinct, as it faces a crisis of rapid habitat destruction due to logging, fires, and the rise of palm oil plantation farming in their native land. The addition of one more sun bear to the population aids in our efforts to promote breeding of this species in managed care.

Marcella appeared to go into labor on Saturday, September 23, at about 1 p.m. She performed many of the same types of behaviors seen during a panda labor, and at about 3:30 p.m. she gave birth to what appears to be a healthy cub. Since then, Marcella has shown herself to be an able mother, remaining ensconced in her den and caring for the cub attentively. Unlike with her first cub, she did come out on the first day postpartum for a quick meal and a drink… she’s a bit more relaxed the second time around!

We won’t know for some time if the cub is a male or a female, because we have to wait to see when staff can pull the cub for an examination. It could be many months. In any case, don’t expect to see this baby on exhibit any time soon… like pandas, the cubs are born quite helpless, and the dam will continue to shelter in the den for the next 100 days or so.

Congratulations, Marcella!

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of the Applied Animal Ecology Division/CRES.

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In watching the teachers I saw a more profound and almost combative response than toward any of the other presenters. Wild dogs were an amazing hot button in spite of their rarity. Because of this, we have scheduled Rosie to return for a question-and-answer session. We also invited other people involved in developing ways to protect livestock from predators. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds as we go along.

Bill Toone is a conservation program specialist for Conservation Education/CRES.

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Tembo’s claim to fame is that she was the star of the 1970s televison show, Born Free. Of course, she played the elephant! She was born in Uganda in 1971 and was orphaned because of poachers. The film crew asked the government if they could use her in the show and they said yes. Her trainer fell in love with her and asked if she could bring Tembo back to the States. Tembo spent the next several years working in Hollywood. Her trainer lived in Thousand Oak, California. Unfortunately, Tembo became a good escape artist and would use her neighbors’ yards as a large buffet. This didn’t settle well with the community, so her trainer donated Tembo to the Zoo.

Tembo is also one of our most accomplished artists. She works with acrylic paints and canvas. She holds her brush and the keeper holds the canvas and she creates. Sometimes the keeper becomes part of the creation, as we get painted too! Recently, at one of our fund-raising events, one of her paintings went for $1,000. (Tembo is pictured above with keeper Victoria Zahn and her latest artwork.)

Tembo can be seen on occasions painting out in her exhibit. Stop by sometime and see her.

Ron Ringer is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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Hoping for the best, we began our attempts at introduction slowly. First, we placed the young meerkats within eye and earshot of Bahati. The youngsters were allowed to explore Bahati’s area while he watched from a distance. Later, the three were leashed and taken out on a walk together on CZ grounds. Early signs didn’t look great; Bahati seemed intent on attack and destruction.

On September 15, Nicki Boyd, CZ animal care supervisor, saw an opportunity. When seated in the CZ meerkat exhibit with Bahati in a crate and the two young meerkats at play, Nicki observed Bahati give a friendly rub when the youngsters approached the crate. She saw this gesture repeated when Bahati was released while the youngsters rested inside a crate. With her heart beating fast, Nicki decided that this was the moment we’d been hoping for. Holding her breath, Nicki opened the crate door. Bahati immediately began friendly rubbing and the youngsters invited rowdy play.

Our newly formed meerkat crowd has been together since that day. Bahati is tolerant, even when he is tired from the persistent antics of his young buddies. He rests, exhausted but happy, as the two youngsters pester him for more play. The animals sleep together in a gigantic ball and only bicker mildly at mealtime when the food pans are first placed down. It is satisfying to see that the lives of all three of these intelligent and fascinating animals were made better just by being together.

Janet Hawes is a senior keeper in the Primate Nursery at the Children’s Zoo.

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On Thursday, we removed the divider and allowed the family to be together for the first time. Izu eagerly ran to greet the cubs; Oshana used a few snarls and whacks with her paws to make sure he knew to approach slowly. The cubs, initially shy, began to tolerate Izu’s curiosity; occasionally they would assume a submissive posture, but for the most part seemed pretty comfortable with their father as long as he made no quick movements. Bakari did hiss and strike at Izu once when he came too close for comfort; Izu immediately went into reverse, with a shocked look on his face.

Things were going well; the decision was made to let the family out into the exhibit. Izu remained very interested in the cubs, following them and attempting to play with them. Oshana was more protective of her offspring while outside; she made sure Izu kept his distance at first. Abena and Bakari also stuck closer to mom than usual. Eventually, everyone relaxed, and after a hour or so all were resting in the grass close to each other. Bakari, the boldest of the two cubs, went so far as to climb up on Izu’s back and play with his mane. Izu put up with this for a minute or two, and then stood up slowly, dumping Bakari off. Oshana watched this move closely, ready to spring if she thought her cub was in danger. Izu made a point of slowly moving off, deliberately not looking at Bakari, so mom would realize he meant no harm. Several times, Oshana greeted Izu with an affectionate face rub; she was glad to be back with her mate, as long as he continued to behave appropriately with the cubs.

After several hours on exhibit, we called everyone back inside. We were able to separate Oshana and the cubs from Izu; Izu willingly went back outside on his own. Two tired cubs had a snack and sacked out for a long nap. Oshana was also ready for a rest. It had been a very exciting morning!

For now, the plan is to have Izu and his pride on exhibit in the morning, until at least 11 a.m. Eventually they will be together for longer periods of time, until they are all out together for most of the day. We are very proud of Izu. He showed impeccable manners with his cubs and has proven himself to be an excellent father by cooperating with Oshana and allowing her to dictate his behavior with the cubs. Come and visit, and enjoy watching our new family unit!

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

Read Marcia’s previous blog about Abena and Bakari, Lion Cubs Get 2nd Checkup.

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I mentioned the prominent behavior, bill clattering, in my previous blog (Shoebill Chatter). This greeting behavior was exhibited by all three birds. Although the male bill clatters more frequently, they all perform this behavior for about the same amount of time, on average 3 to 4 seconds. I also looked at where each bird spent the most amount of time. When you visit the Park’s Mombasa Lagoon, you will notice there are three islands that make up the shoebill enclosure. During my observation sessions, I recorded their location using a map of the lagoon. It turns out that each bird has a preferred area of the enclosure where they spend most of their time. As they are naturally solitary animals, each bird is situated on a different island than the others! The shoebill storks rarely come into close proximity with another bird, and this information is valuable for studying social interactions.

Although the breeding behavior of captive shoebill storks still remains a mystery, any research that looks at social interactions provides valuable information that can be used towards understanding reproduction. Hopefully, my research will prompt future studies that will further investigate this unique species. And if you spend enough time watching the shoebills, you might be able to see them lift their beaks skyward and clatter their bills.

Sara Skillman finished her Summer Fellowship with the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES.

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Today his associate, Dr. Elizabeth (Lizzie) King, who has lived here for 12 years, gave a presentation. She is a restoration ecologist and encapsulates all of the good things about a foreigner working in another country. Her dress is casual—it’s colorful, local, and clearly comfortable for her. She is high energy, bright, and hands on. According to our students, her Swahili is flawless. She gave a brief lecture and whenever she hit what she thought might be a complicated point, she shifted into rapid-fire Swahili to clarify. The teachers were wowed.

She then took us out for a demonstration on grasslands restoration. First, you have to know that overgrazing is a huge problem here, in fact in much of East Africa. For the Samburu and Maasai, wealth is measured with cattle and goats. When the land is overgrazed, runoff and soil erosion occurs.

Lizzie explained that by disturbing the soil and adding seed, you could increase the penetration of water, slow the runoff, and restore grasslands. She showed everyone that by using a bucket of ashes from their fires, 2 sticks, and 10 feet (3 meters) of clear tubing, they could determine levels across a long distance. We practiced and cut our level grooves across a hillside in one area and did nothing in another area. Then, with big buckets of water we created a downpour. Where we had done nothing the water raced down the hill a very long way; when we checked to see the depth of penetration, we found that because it moved so quickly and had spread out so far, it did not penetrate the surface of the soil at all. In our test area, most water was captured in the cuts; even where the water overflowed the grooves, we had reduced its speed of flow. In the grooves, of course, the water sat and penetrated deeply, but in between our grooves we were really surprised at how deeply it penetrated simply because it was moving slower.

Bill Toone is a conservation program specialist for Conservation Education/CRES.

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About 5:45 a.m. I hear camp staff bring water up from the muddy river and pour it into huge pots over a perpetual fire. Then they ladle out hot water into a bucket and add cold water until it meets the approval of their hand being swished through the water. Once they approve of the temperature, it is carried to one of the showers and the warm water is ladled into an overhead bucket. You step under the bucket, lift a lever, and somewhere between a trickle and a shower of warm water streams down onto you. Warm water, the crisp cold mornings, and we are ready to go!

Bill Toone is a conservation program specialist for Conservation Education/CRES.

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In the same way that elephant calves are attractive to people, they are also a magnet to other elephants. By watching the herd on Elephant Cam, you can see how the other elephants mingle around to touch, smell, listen, and watch the little girl and her mom. One of Umngani’s most compatible herd mates is Litsemba (pictured above on the right), so the first herd member to join the mom and calf was a good friend. You may also notice Lungile in the yard with Umngani and the calf. She is a smaller and more passive elephant, so she was one of the first to meet the new calf. We are able to let specific elephants meet the new baby because we shift the elephants around to different sections of the exhibit. The elephant staff has trained the animals to move using positive reinforcement. This was quite a feat that required a lot of patience, but has proven to be beneficial for the elephants.

One reason why we are slowly introducing other herd members to Umngani and her baby is because they are all so excited about the newcomer. In the wild, an elephant herd also shows a lot of interest in newborns, but we need to be a bit cautious in a managed care setting. Imagine what would happen if two-year-old Vus’musi (Moose), was so thrilled about his new playmate that he ran over to welcome her, but accidentally bumped into the little girl. Whoops! In fact, Moose is growing so fast that he now sprouts a couple of little tusks.

So we are slowly integrating mom and calf with the herd. We plan to do so for all of our expectant moms and calves after they’ve given birth. Litsemba is due this spring, Umoya looks like she’ll have a baby late summer, 2007, and Lungile should give birth sometime late 2007 or early 2008. Just think: our Park herd will nearly double in size with these additions, and the youngsters should have a lot of playmates to keep them happy, healthy, and rambunctious, and they have plenty of room to frolic. At this time we intend to allow the calves to grow up within the herd.

Fred Bercovitch is head of the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES.
Jeff Andrews is an animal care manager at the Wild Animal Park.

Watch the elephant herd on Elephant Cam.
See the first photos of our elephant baby.
Here’s video of the elephant calf.

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The keepers have shifted their schedule so the pandas can feed before the work begins in the morning and get a hearty breakfast. Su Lin, in proper cub fashion, hangs out in the trees, as does Mei Sheng. He also naps on the climbing structure (he is demonstrating this in the picture above!) on the right side of the enclosure when it’s his week to be out (he rotates on exhibit with Gao Gao). Although the keepers have given Bai Yun access to her exhibit bedroom, she has remained in her usual favorite spots, and Gao is just fine in the back area. Our diligent keepers check on the bears repeatedly throughout the day, either on the closed-circuit cameras, in person from the viewing area, or from the keeper area at the rear of the enclosures. You can be sure that the pandas continue to get the best of care.

It’s a little odd, after maintaining quiet in this area for so long, but since the noise tends to be localized and fairly constant, it is a less troublesome thing than sudden, intermittent, or unfamiliar noises for animals with sharp hearing.

On another topic, recent visitors have praised the “new and improved” Panda Cam. This praise should rightfully go to the Zoo’s wonderful Meerkat volunteers, who have taken on this job in addition to many others at the Zoo. This has freed up the keepers and research staff to do their important jobs at the Research Station, and has provided our Web site visitors with the best viewing experience possible. A full tail-stand salute to our wonderful Meerkats!

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

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