After the ceremony in Wolong, Mei Sheng was released in a large quarantine pen where he settled down quickly. He began exploring his surroundings and exhibited the normal inquisitiveness that he is known for. Thank you all for your concern and well wishes. He is now in the capable hands of the experienced Wolong staff. San Diego Zoo staff will remain with him for a few more days before returning home.

We know you want to hear a first-hand account from our staff and they will provide you with more information when the opportunity arises. Unfortunately, the remote mountains and bamboo forests of Wolong are a blessing for pandas but a problem for our technology. Please be patient. Thank you for your continued support.

I noticed that Tatqiq just didn’t seem herself and was isolating herself more from the other bears. It became very apparent a few days later that we had a sick bear on our hands. An exam was immediately done and several tests taken to determine the situation at hand. What some of the radiographs revealed was that Tatqiq had come down with pretty severe pneumonia.

After a few days of rest, fluids, medications, and lots of TLC, she started to respond favorably. Tatqiq gained some of her appetite back, was moving around more, and all the bears were ready to be reunited once again. In order for anesthesia to be administered and samples to be collected (blood, spinal fluid, etc) the vets had shaved off the fur to expose the skin underneath. After lots of sniffing and investigating of Tatqiq’s bare spots, it was time to engage in a day of play and napping in the dirt pits.

While the bears’ routine is more normal, we still have to medicate Tatqiq twice a day with about 20 pills each time. She’s much larger than your average dog, and those of you who have had to medicate your pets know how challenging that can be! And speaking from experience, it takes time to completely come around from having pneumonia. That means Tatqiq still needs some extra time and attention to make sure she’s comfortable and not overdoing it. I figure that’s right up her alley though, as she IS the princess.

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

As usual, we moved him out to the service road where a forklift was waiting, which he was used to, as this was part of his normal training sessions. This time, however, he was loaded onto a truck. He handled it all quite well, remaining very calm and eating the whole time. After his crate was secured and packing lists double checked, Kathy and I fed him some more treats and said our very difficult goodbyes. Then Mei Sheng, accompanied by several Zoo staff, set out for the airport. We are glad to report that he arrived safely at the airport and is being loaded on the plane as I write this blog. Our team members report that he remained calm during the entire ride up, either resting or snacking.

He will soon arrive in China, his new home. We hope to report more soon from our panda team as his journey continues. We’d also like to express thanks for all the wonderful messages and well wishes from all the panda bloggers. Your kindness does indeed lift our spirits.

Angie Fiore is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Listen to an iZoofari Chat about Mei Sheng, with keeper Kathy Hawk.

Moderator’s note: Many of you have sent in comments regarding Mei Sheng’s arrival at Wolong, based on outside news sources. We are waiting to hear from our own team that accompanied Mei Sheng to China and will post the information when it becomes available. Communication out of Wolong can sometimes be difficult—patience, please.

Many of you may be wondering how we narrowed down the names to these four. It was a difficult process. We received so many wonderful entries, but the Panda Team came together and narrowed the names down on a daily basis. During the 10-day period that we accepted name suggestions, a Panda Team member was asked to review those day’s entries. That person then picked five names from the batch. At the end of this phase, 10 members of the Panda Team came together to review 50 names (five from each day).

There were certain criteria set from the beginning. We looked for Chinese names that had a strong meaning or connection to giant pandas, San Diego, and/or the People’s Republic of China. We considered pronunciation of the names as well as the names of our other pandas. And we, of course, considered your thoughts.

Many bloggers have been calling our little girl Bright Star (Ming Xing) and you may wonder what about this name? We considered it in the final round, but unfortunately it did not move forward. When you translate Ming Xing as two separate words it, in fact, means “bright star” but as one term it means “celebrity.” While panda fans may consider all giant pandas celebrities, we had to consider the feelings of the other pandas in putting this little girl on a pedestal. So we decided it was not politically correct among the pandas! Really, how do you think Hua Mei would feel? Wasn’t she a celebrity? Well, at least we celebrated her birth, Mei Sheng’s, and Su Lin’s just as much as our new little one. So in the end, Ming Xing was not selected to make the final cut. We’re sorry but we chose what we felt was most appropriate for this panda.

Many of you may continue to refer to her as “Bright Star” and she is a bright star for this critically endangered species, but we think that one of the four names you will vote from will be just as wonderful for our little girl. You only have until November 11, so vote now! The female cub will be bestowed the name with the most votes at a naming ceremony at 11 a.m. on Monday, November 26 at the San Diego Zoo’s Hunte Amphitheater. The ceremony is open to the public, with Zoo admission. It will be a wonderful ceremony. Join us if you can. Thank you for your suggestion and continued support!

The online naming poll has now been closed… Be sure to check back Nov. 26 to see which name you chose for the baby panda.

Rojo can best be described as a lovable momma’s boy. He can always be found close to mom, and he is the most affectionate towards his keepers, offering us a chuff every once in awhile. Kemala is the troublemaker of the bunch, and she is the most vocal. Sari (pictured below) is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to training: she is the most focused and is usually the first of her siblings to learn a new behavior. Sari is also the biggest fan of the water; she takes after her dad, Utan, in this respect. She takes all of her toys, including the paper towels, straight to the water, making sure that no pool or drinker is ever easy to clean! One of the funniest things that she does: on the two days a week when they receive a femur bone as enrichment, she immediately carries hers to the pool and washes it off before settling down to eat!

The cubs are eating almost as much as mom now. They receive 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) of meat daily while Delta receives 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms)! Thing is that the cubs believe they should be eating more still and will try to steal mom’s food whenever they get the chance! Even though Delta is still much larger than her babies (she weighs 185 pounds or 84 kilograms), she will not reprimand them for stealing her food even if they take it right out of her mouth! Delta just backs off and lets her kids have whatever they want. (Talk about spoiled.) We try to always separate the tigers and feed them individually, because it allows them to focus on their training. Our cats are no slouches! Already the cubs know how to sit, lie down, target (hold their nose to our fist), and rise up on the fence, and they are learning to go to a mark. Not bad for 11 months old! (Kudos to Michelle and Aimee, their two primary trainers!)

How long they should stay with their mom? In the wild, a tiger cub would stay with mom for about two years, but most of this time is spent learning how to hunt. In the wild, mom also has plenty of opportunities to take a break from her cubs; here at the Wild Animal Park, space does not allow for much of a break. With this in mind, we have started the process of separating Delta from the kids. Right now we are separating them at night to give her a much-needed rest, and soon we will increase the amount of time apart. A big benefit of these nightly separations is that it gives us a chance to collect fecal samples from Delta. These fecal samples are being sent to the CRES lab where they look at her hormone levels in order to track her estrous cycles. This way, when the time comes we will be ready to breed Delta once again!

As a final note, I wanted to mention that the tigers (and all of the cats here at the Park) are no worse for wear after the fires (see Fire Update from the Wild Animal Park). The strong winds caused us to lock all the cats inside their respective houses long before the fires reached the Park (this was done as a precaution against the threat of the wind bringing down trees in the enclosures). While there was quite a bit of smoke and ash for several days, the cats never seemed to care and went on as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred!

Kym Nelson is a keeper at the Wild Animal Park.

Research with these animals did not end when they were transferred to Baja. There are behaviorists observing them regularly in their flight pen, using the same ethogram and protocol we used throughout their time in San Diego. Birds that have been released in previous years are regularly followed and observed in the wild, and these newest birds will be similarly monitored once they fly free.

Our work in San Diego did not end when the cohort departed. We began monitoring the newest cohort of youngsters as they moved into the condor release pens at the Wild Animal Park in September. We added a new dimension to the project this year, following the birds closely as they were still in their nest boxes a few days prior to release to the flight pen. We want to see if their reactions when exposed to their new surroundings through a mesh door from the nest box would provide us with any clues as to their temperament. Assessing temperament early on might aid in predicting which birds will be successful when ultimately released to the wild and could help identify birds that may need special training or experiences to help them build the skills they need to survive.

We followed each of our new subjects, two males and two females, as they joined the cohort lorded over by Itaxme, the mentor bird. We watched their first week of activity once released as a group to the large flight pen they would call home over the next several months. It was fun to see the clumsy youngsters maneuver in their new pen, adjusting to life in a group.

And then the fires hit.

Though the staff was able to evacuate all condors to safety during the fires, there was some damage to the release pen area and another condor facility at the Wild Animal Park. As a result, “our” birds have not been able to return to the study area since the fires, and are instead being housed at a different condor facility for the time being. There is still some uncertainty as to the fate of our research at this time, since we need to sort out several details about study parameters and logistics before we can continue, and the birds themselves may not be housed permanently in their current location.

Ever heard the saying “Life is what happens when you are off making other plans?” As much as CRES and other researchers around the globe may produce quantities of valuable research with interesting conclusions and important applications, what most folks never hear about is the myriad ways that research can be thwarted, stymied, and mucked up by things outside of one’s control. In the long term, the condor project as a whole will continue to move forward reintroducing birds to native habitat in Baja and the U.S. In the short term, our research project with this cohort is at a standstill. But I have no doubt that it will renew, with this cohort or the next.

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

Here’s more information about the California Condor Recovery Program.

Read a blog and see video of the fire’s impact on the condor facilities…