I know everyone is anxious to see these striped bundles, and we are working towards our goal of having them on exhibit. Those of you who are familiar with our tiger exhibit know that it is very large, over 3 acres, and encompasses some territory that is steep and rough. This is great for the adults, but we need to be sure the cubs are large enough to negotiate the terrain safely. We are also working on training the cubs to come when called. Until we’re sure we will be able to get them back into the house, we can’t release them. They are catching on quickly, but still need some work. Their patient mother, Delta, tries to help by chuffing to them when we want them to shift somewhere, but baby tigers are much more independent than lion cubs. Sometimes they just don’t listen to mom!

I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the cub’s progress. Hopefully they will be ready for their debut soon!

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

Pronghorn antelope are the only native antelope in North America. They are known for the ability to run very fast, up to 58 miles per hour (93 kilometers per hour), making them the fastest land mammals in North America. Keeping this fact in mind, we decided to halter train her and encourage her to walk on a lead rope. This was easy to do in the beginning, as she needed her bottle twice a day for the first few months. We introduced her to our blonde golden retriever, Mr. Sven Olof (see Maureen’s blog, Sven Olof, Conservation Star). Sven has many jobs at the San Diego Zoo: recycling in our shows; living and working with our cheetah, Karroo (see Maureen’s blog, Learning to Run like the Wind); working with our Arctic wolf (see Kenai on Vacation); our North American badger, our African serval brothers (see Watching Jabari Jump is a Joy), and visiting our employee lunchroom daily. Now added to his list is working with our young antelope, Sonseeahray.

What does Sven have to offer this species? Well, to start with, he is a calm, happy critter that is compliant on every level. He smiles with his tail whenever he is asked to do anything. Sven’s comfortable disposition is very magnetic and intrigues our young pronghorn to no end. She is curious about his wagging tail and investigates this phenomenon on a daily basis. Her intrigue with our dog is just the impetus needed for us to halter her and lead her to new areas around the compound with Sven leading the way. A match made in a zoo, yes!

Mr. Sven Olof’s popularity grows daily and lucky for us, he enjoys his charges. One can only hope that his enjoyment rubs off, not only on the animals he works with, but the people he crosses paths with. Sven and Sonseeahray aren’t ready to make their debut, but with a little help from his tail you might see that tale end in a show soon!

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

What you may not know is that our girl Bai Yun set two records yesterday. To the best of our knowledge, she had the quickest behavioral estrus on record, showing strong signs of estrus a mere hour-and-a-half before her first copulation. This is not the typical pattern of Bai Yun, but perhaps this is typical of healthy 15-year-old females. The next-shortest estrus we are aware of was experienced by a female in Mexico City. Our staff estimates Bai Yun beat that female out by about 24 hours. Interestingly, the Mexico City female in question was about Bai Yun’s age when she had her very truncated estrus.

Another record was set when Bai Yun bred Gao Gao on three separate occasions yesterday. We know of no other female who has copulated three times in eight hours. It is common for females to mate across two to three days, and in that time accumulate up to five separate breedings. But three in eight hours… way to go Bai Yun (and Gao Gao)!

This morning, we watched Bai Yun to see if she might be up for another pairing with the male. Although her behavior was dampened a bit with regard to her stellar performance yesterday, she was still performing strong tail-ups and holding the mating pose when stimulated by a touch. She continued to bleat and chirp. She looked to be ready to have another go with Gao Gao.

Gao Gao, however, was less enthusiastic this morning. He was not so eager to be with her early this morning, and didn’t pull at the gate to get to her like yesterday. At the howdy gate, he moaned and even swatted at her. We opted to back off and feed both bears well, hoping a full stomach might change his attitude. If he continues to be less than receptive, then our mating season will have come to a close.

What’s in store for the future? Three matings is more than enough to result in a pregnancy (after all, it only takes one!). Two of the copulations were of a hearty length; one was 1 minute 31 seconds in duration, the other 2 minutes 30 seconds. Even the short 30-second copulation may have deposited enough semen in her tract to fertilize her ovum. Whether she will maintain a pregnancy remains to be seen, and we won’t be able to confirm a pregnancy until it is visualized via ultrasound a few weeks before the actual birth date. We’ll just have to watch and wait. It’s all up to our world champion now.

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

Khosi, our female calf born on September 11, 2006, has a new playmate, named “Impunga,” or Punga for short, who was born on March 11, 2007. Our first calf, Vus’musi, or Moose, is over three years old and, while he is still a baby, he’s growing fast and plays less often than the two infants. You can watch the two babies playing from the Wild Animal Park’s Elephant Overlook or the Elephant Viewing Patio near Tembo Stadium. In case you can’t come to the Park, you can get an idea of their playfulness by clicking on the video clip links above. It’s sort of funny to watch because when it looks like the going might be getting a bit rough for the smaller Punga, his mom comes over to comfort him, while Khosi turns around and adopts a “Who me?” sort of look and posture. She doesn’t want to get in trouble for being too rough with her new playmate.

Of course, she isn’t too rough and the two of them are just having a ball playing throughout the day. Little do they know they have two more playmates on the way. Sometime before the end of the year, we’re expecting Umoya and Lungile to give birth. We have plenty of room for all of these animals in our herd and are extremely pleased that we have been able to increase our herd size and watch the group bond together.

We’ve been pretty busy with the two babies, so haven’t had a chance to answer some of the questions you’ve raised. Sorry about that, but here are a few tidbits:

• With each birth, we learn something new and are trying to create a social environment allowing the babies to grow up as if they were living in Africa. That’s why the calves are being introduced to the herd earlier now than when Moose was born.
• Males don’t start pursuing females until they are at least 15 years old, so Moose will be living with us for quite some time. Mabu is probably going to stay as the dominant bull for many years.
• Elephants are extremely smart and their calls do mean something to each other. But we aren’t sure what they mean. One reason that we are making recordings of elephant sounds is that by documenting their conversations, we can try to get some insights into their lives and then use this information to improve the quality of life in captivity.
• We have not artificially inseminated any of the females. All of the calves were produced by natural matings. Mabu is the father of all of the babies, except for Moose.
• We were able to film the birth of both Khosi and Impunga, but because the births occurred when it was still dark, and we concentrated on making sure that the mother and baby were doing fine, the quality of the videotape is not the best.

Fred Bercovitch is head of the CRES Division of Behavioral Biology; Jeff Andrews is the Wild Animal Park’s Elephant Animal Care Manager

It can be frustrating to not get to see the panda of one’s choice. But once mating season is over, pandas may be moved from area to area with little or no advance notice. We appreciate everyone understanding that these few special days a year are very important to an increase in basic knowledge of panda behavior—and we hope to have the added bonus of adding to the captive population as well. As the plan is now, public viewing will be confined to the classroom area this morning as well. After that, well, it’s all up to the bears. (Isn’t it always???)

And, three cheers for the Zoo’s Meerkat Volunteers, who’ve been manning the Panda Cam and giving so many of us an up-close and personal view of the mating activity this year! Wow!

Ellie Rosenbaum is an educator and panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

Stay tuned to the panda cam to see more exciting panda encounters throughout the day. We’ll do our best to show you what we can, but there is no guarantee the bears will cooperate with our camera angles!

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

Meanwhile, Gao Gao continues to scent mark, wander, and vocalize, vocalize, vocalize. He has been letting her know, as he would in the wild, he’s here and he’s ready, whenever she is—which she isn’t—but he’s here and he’s ready, when she is—which is what the research team is trying to determine—but he’s ready!!! So for all of you anxious to know just if and when actual mating will occur, as with almost everything else here, it’s all up to the bear, and in this case, as it usually is, it’s up to Bai Yun. And you can’t possibly be more ready for this to happen than Gao Gao!

Ellie Rosenbaum is an educator and panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

A typical behavior pattern for a female in estrus is to decrease food consumption while increasing activity level, including restless wandering and scent marking. For the last few days, Bai Yun has shown a bit of a decrease in appetite. This morning, she left quite a bit of bamboo unfinished, something she would not have dreamed of doing a month ago. However, instead of using her spare time to wander and mark, she chose to fill her time with a nap. At least she has one half of the equation right!

Females in estrus also become a little more solicitous to males in the area, culminating in sexual receptivity around their peak. Bai Yun, who last week barked at and swatted Gao Gao when he was near, was this morning observed sitting near the howdy gate. She watched Gao Gao and chirped sweetly for several minutes. When she finished saying her hellos, she turned and left a nice scent mark near the howdy corridor before ambling over to her resting place.

Our early hormone projections suggested that Bai Yun’s estrogen would fall precipitously anywhere from Tuesday to Thursday of this week. Her strongest estrus behavior, and sexual receptivity, should follow that drop. At this point we are left to wonder: is she running a few days behind our model’s projections? Or will she surprise us tomorrow? We suspect that she will peak near the end of the week. If her hormones do indeed fall late on Thursday, then Friday would be our expected “go” date for a first mating encounter. If multiple days of breeding are on the horizon, we could pair Bai Yun with Gao Gao that day and over the weekend.

There is another possibility to consider. Things have been a little trickier with Bai Yun this year, a bit unexpected here and there. It is possible that she will maintain this guessing game and fail to show us strong estrus behavior at her peak. Our mating decision tree dictates that, if she or Gao Gao fail to demonstrate appropriate sexual behavior towards one another, we will not pair them. This is to ensure that no fighting occurs and no bear is injured in a botched breeding attempt. Could we be looking at a year without breeding?

I don’t think so. Gao Gao appears to have picked up on something, as his behavior has ramped up in the last 24 hours. He is wandering frequently, checking the howdy gate as much as 14 times in 90 minutes, and now his bleating is more intense, his activity more vigorous. He is ready to go.

As for Bai Yun? She has never let us down before. I predict she will breed this year, at the end of this week. Remember this year’s mantra: truncation. Her behavior may not come on line for us until the last minute. One older female in Mexico City showed a behavioral estrus of less than 48 hours from start to finish when she was about Bai Yun’s age.

Some of you have asked about the possibility of an AI. If we have multiple matings, there will not be a need for an artificial insemination. The AI would only come into play if we have doubts about the success of any breeding encounters, or if none occur at all. You’ll have to stay tuned to this zoo station to find out how it all works out.

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

So why am I telling you this? Well, I’m at home and I just logged on to the San Diego Zoo’s Web site to watch the Polar Cam. Yes, even from home I’m constantly checking up on the bears.

As for Kalluk and Tatqiq, I think the lazy period is winding down (see Kelly’s previous blog, Lazy Days of… Spring?). They still enjoy their mid-morning naps, but frequently I find them wrestling and whooping it up come afternoon, sometimes with a toy, sometimes with each other. This confirms that as care givers we’re on the right track. We’ve even taken up a new hobby here at the plunge: painting.

The San Diego Zoo is getting ready to celebrate National Bear Awareness Week May 5 through 13. During this time we will have informative booths, keeper talks, enrichment activities, and even a silent auction. That’s where the painting comes in; each of the polar bears tried their hand, or paw if you will, at creating a masterpiece. Two of these prints will be available to bid on. For more information about the event, keep an eye out on our Web site for a schedule and updates. And for all you locals, I hope to see you there!

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Taking care of our clouded leopards requires establishing daily routines they can predict. Setting up a schedule they can follow allows them to be comfortable here. We know this by observing their behavior, watching their relaxed attitude and the constant chuffing, a greeting they extend to us on a daily basis. We have also set up their pens to include climbing structures, a great way for these treetop dwelling cats to exercise. We often find them chasing each other in a sort of “tag, you’re it” type of game.

From December through March, clouded leopards traditionally go into their breeding cycle. Females experience estrus monthly and will urinate frequently, leaving breeding information for males to find. Females also enjoy decorating themselves with fragrances during this period of time as well. Kya and Kilat will interact with plants on walks or scented lotions spread on towels in their pens (pictured above). Recently a donor gave our area large quantities of exotic smelling lotions so that we would be able to keep K2 lapped up in lotion through the entire breeding season. A little bit of heaven for our clouded girls!

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

Read about another set of clouded leopard sisters.