Our previous studies into the olfactory communication behavior of the giant panda have shown that scent-marking signals convey information about individual identities and readiness to mate, as well as facilitating sexual motivation prior to mating. Wolong’s use of this information to change the way their pandas were managed for breeding contributed to the dramatic increase in successful reproduction seen there.

In contrast to olfactory signals, however, less is known about the role that vocal signals play in giant panda reproduction. While quiet and solitary most of the year, pandas use a bewildering array of vocalizations when they come together for mating. It is likely that these elaborate vocalizations help pandas negotiate the delicate transition from their normally solitary and aggressive tendencies to mutually beneficial sexual behaviors, and they also may play a role in female choice of a mate. More than two decades ago, Devra Kleiman and Gustav Peters conducted some very interesting studies on the two pandas at the National Zoological Park. These studies gave some valuable insights into panda acoustic communication, but a study on more animals using new technology is needed.

So that’s the “why;” next comes the “what.” This kind of work requires expertise in a very specialized field known as bioacoustics. We have partnered with Zoo Atlanta, who last year hired just such a person, Ben Charlton. Ben recently received his Ph.D. in this field and is spearheading a major collaborative effort to learn more about how pandas produce these vocal signals, define the acoustic structure of the vocalizations, and, ultimately, understand what they mean to pandas and how they contribute to breeding readiness. This research is a collaboration between us, Zoo Atlanta, the Wolong Breeding Center, and the Chengdu Giant Panda Base. Ben is working mostly in Chengdu, and Jen is working mostly in Wolong. Jen is another person with extensive experience in bioacoustics, which is why we hired her to assist with the San Diego Zoo’s part of the collaboration. Over the coming weeks, Jen will report to you from Wolong and you will learn more about her, Wolong, the research program, and, most of all, pandas! Enjoy!

Ron Swaisgood, Ph.D. is co-head of the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Conservation Unit

New video of Zhen Zhen is now posted…

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This binational collaboration means there is plenty of news happening on both sides of the international border, and that’s why we’re bringing you a one-stop shop for condor news. Visit www.cacondorconservation.org to find out what is happening in the world of the California condor, from The Peregrine Fund’s World Center of Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, south to the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City and everywhere in between, including the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park! There is also a link to condor blogs under “Podcasts and Blogs” on the gold bar on the right side of this page.

The Web site is packed with news, photos, video, and personal accounts from the conservationists themselves. There is a fantastic story, for example, from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist who climbed into this year’s first wild condor nest to check on an egg, only to find himself being pushed around by the protective mother-to-be. Video packages take you behind-the-scenes at various locations so that you can experience what it’s like to be a condor expert.

You’ll find bios not only on some of the condor team members but also on the birds themselves. A map will show you where in the world the California condors can be found and you can even report your condor sightings. Best of all, you can ask questions directly of the people who know condors best! Come join the team and post your comments at www.cacondorconservation.org.

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We also encounter monkeys of various species every few hours, including the crowned guenon Cercopithecus pogonias, and the putty-nosed guenon Cercopithecus nictitans. Interestingly, many of the monkeys we are currently seeing are solitary males, which is unusual since they usually travel in groups. There are currently very few forest fruits available for primates to eat; it is the height of the dry season (particularly severe this year), and it is possible that the males are finding it more productive to forage alone, rather than in larger groups with more competition for fruit.

One wonderful surprise during these surveys has been the sheer number of chimpanzee signs we have encountered; in two weeks of surveying, we have found no fewer than 23 groups of nests. The nests have been of varying ages, of course, from freshly built, with leaves still green and fresh feces on the ground nearby (which we collect for genetic and fecal analyses), to much older, disintegrating nests, where only careful observation can identify the carefully twisted branches that once formed a perfect mattress.

During the first week of the survey, we bumped into a man. It turned out that he was a trapper, following a path to check his traps (snares). He was as surprised as us and at first tried to keep away from us, fearing that we were forest guards. But we were able to calm him down and ended up enjoying a friendly conversation with him. He was about 50 years old, spoke only in the local language of Banen (not a word of English or French, the official languages of Cameroon), and from what we could see, was not having a very successful day. He told us of his village, where he has lived all his life, and his family, and explained that he was mostly subsistence hunting to provide food for his family. Rarely, if he trapped something of value and he could find a buyer, he would sell the animal to a bushmeat trader, but this was uncommon.

We then spoke to him about the fact that the Ebo Forest was soon to be a national park and what that will mean for his activities (he will not be able to enter the area without authorization). He realizes that his trapping will have to stop and instead he intends to concentrate on farming. He then told us a story: four years ago, as he was working in his farm where he grows plantains and other foods for his family, he was clearing away dense undergrowth to plant more vegetables when a hunter, mistaking him for an animal, shot him in the upper body with a shotgun. He then showed us his scarred face and assured us that he would never carry a gun. It is a sad fact that hunting injuries are all too common in rural areas in Cameroon and only exacerbated by the lack of safety consciousness and illegality of gun ownership, which is almost always the case. This sobering tale made us realize the human aspect to hunting; all too often we concentrate on the effects on the wildlife. This sort of story often brings it home to me that the hunters individually are no different in character to any other person and certainly are not worthy of our individual condemnation or contempt.

Finally—did we see elephants? Well, not yet, but that’s not a surprise. The areas we have surveyed are close to both roads and villages, where animal densities are always less due to pressure from hunting. We have seen a few signs of elephant presence: a very old footprint (probably at least four months old) and an old elephant path. This is the first phase of our elephant research in Ebo, and the surveying is scheduled to be complete by the end of June. As I type these words, I have just parted company with the elephant survey team, having been with them for the first few weeks of the survey to guide, supervise, and ensure things were running well and the procedures were all being adhered to. The survey will now continue into more remote regions, further away from the villages and roads, penetrating more deeply into the Ebo Forest. They have a satellite phone for security, and we have organized modes of communication to ensure that safety is of paramount importance. I look forward to mid March, when I will again join them in searching for signs of forest elephants.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Central Africa Program specialist with the San Diego Zoo.

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This was the first obstacle of the day, and we were happy to ignore the compass bearing for a few minutes, altering our path so that we didn’t disturb it. Gaboon vipers are pretty docile creatures and require a significant amount of hassle to attack humans, often emitting a low frequency “growling noise” to warn off intruders.

The main trial over the first few days of the survey was crossing the larger rivers that meandered back and forth across our path of travel. Almost inevitably, one side of each river seemed carpeted by an army of biting ants, presumably trying to find a way to cross like us. This made balancing on fallen trees less inviting, so we often waded across, trying to keep our legs as dry as possible.

As the week wore on we got into more mountainous territory, with one notable day requiring a 3,300-foot (1,000-meter) vertical ascent, only to struggle to find a stream near the summit, by which we could make camp for the night. The following day we descended the same height, only to later discover five further summits before reaching our first destination a week later.

The mountainous topography of the Ebo Forest is the major reason why it still harbors so many species that have disappeared elsewhere in the region. Although there have been commercial logging activities in some parts of the forest in the past, it has always been limited in extent because the terrain is plastered by enormous boulders and sheer cliffs. Logged forest is often characterized by a series of abandoned vehicle tracks, making access for hunters and trappers much easier, whereas creating a permanent path in mountainous rocky terrain is hard work for humans and therefore good for animals! Some of the cliffs also deterred us: at the summit of one mountain we twice had to divert our direction of travel until we could find a place to climb over the enormous basalt outcrops.

Finding a suitable place to camp each night was also tricky, for it is currently the height of the dry season and many of the mountain streams have dried up. We took plenty of anti-diarrhea tablets with us and were as careful as we could be with boiling our water; thankfully, we all managed to make the first week with few mishaps. Perhaps the most serious problem was caused by my choice of place to pitch my tent one night: next to a Barteria tree, home to a symbiotic ant species that “protects” the tree by inflicting a nasty bite and injects potent poison on intruders. Two hours after a particularly ferocious attack on my shoulder and finger, my left hand had swollen to the size of a small balloon and I started becoming concerned at the pain. Luckily, the antihistamines we had in the first aid kit helped, and within three days the swelling had subsided dramatically (though as I write this, almost two weeks later, my fingers are still swollen).

I was also surprised to see my first leech when bathing in a stream one night. I have never seen them in the Ebo Forest until now; it is not common to find them in fast-flowing streams.

Maybe the best sight in the first few days, however, was that of a giant rock python – one of the largest snakes in Africa – basking in the sun in an area where there had recently been tree falls caused by high winds. While I knew the python was not venomous, the local members of our team were adamant that we should not approach. Hence the rather small photograph taken at a distance of over 5 yards/meters of a very beautiful snake! Its diameter we estimated to be around 6 inches (15 centimeters), and its length exceeded 5 yards/meters, although it was obscured by the fallen trees.

Shortly I’ll post some of the other interesting things we came across, including goliath frogs, solitary monkeys, and chimpanzees, as well as a sobering tale from a hunter we met on our way, as well as news on our search for signs indicating the presence of forest elephants.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Central Africa Program specialist with the San Diego Zoo.

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The project aims to assess the distribution and relative abundance of forest elephants throughout the Ebo Forest and the areas currently outside the proposed Ebo National Park, an area occupying a 1,500 square-kilometer footprint, but made considerably more when the inclines of the steep mountain chains are taken into account.

Forest elephants are very special creatures and are now considered a different species from their savanna counterparts. They are much smaller in size, which helps them move through the densely forested habitat, have smaller, more rounded ears, and we believe they move through the forest in smaller groups than savanna elephants, looking for fruits, which form an important part of their diet.

Finding forest elephants in a forest is surprisingly difficult. The limits to visibility in the habitat, and their seeming ability to melt into the background do not help matters, and when startled they either run away, or charge, neither of which is helpful when conducting surveys. So the best way to estimate their abundance is by looking for evidence of their presence, and luckily their dung piles remain on the forest floor for several weeks! Statistically rigorous surveys are able to determine densities of elephants from the dung pile’s density without ever seeing an elephant, but when densities of elephants are low, reliable statistics are hard to produce. Our surveys will not determine absolute densities of elephants because we are not yet certain if there are sufficient elephants in the Ebo Forest to produce an accurate estimate in this way, so we are first conducting abundance surveys.

We have established a series of “virtual” parallel paths based on compass bearings that will cover the whole forest at systematic intervals, totaling around 350 kilometers in length as the crow flies. Walking along a predetermined routes is not as easy as it sounds, as my next blog will detail: obstructions such as enormous boulders, rock faces, enormous snakes, and fast-flowing rivers have to be avoided, which can add unwanted complication into the analyses of the dung pile abundance. Also, when the team of researchers travels along the predefined routes, it is important that as little disturbance of the natural forest is made as possible, but this is incredibly hard to achieve when fighting your way through a tree fall area where lianas, vines, and shrubs spring up with vigor to take advantage of the light. So we have to move in single file using secateurs, and when conditions are extreme we use a machete to carefully cut a path through the vegetation.

Studying dung piles has other interesting uses beyond providing the ability to survey elephant distribution and abundance: it also allows us to understand the diet of the elephants in detail by examining the seeds in the dung and looking for other components such as bark, leaves, and occasionally grasses.

Additionally, it is possible to extract the elephant’s DNA from dung, which means genetic analysis could also be performed, although this is not a goal of the current project.

Shortly I will post the progress of our work on the elephant survey in January, together with a few photographs of some of the surprises along the way. The survey will continue until May, when we will analyze results to determine the status of the elephant populations in the Ebo Forest.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Central Africa Program specialist with the San Diego Zoo.
Read her previous blog, Gorillas: Taiping Four.

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Condor #261 is at the top of his game. The alpha male presiding over a small but growing group of 16 birds in the Sierra San Pedro Martir of Baja California, he enjoys his pick of perches, deference by others at the feeding sites and, apparently, his choice of mate. It was not always so easy for #261, in fact, he started at the bottom of the pecking order when he and 4 other condors, a male #259 and three females, older by one year, arrived at the release site in August 2002. He had been somewhere in the middle of the group in status, but when he was captured from a large aviary on transport day at the Los Angles Zoo’s condor breeding facility, he incurred an injury to his beak that left him in some degree of pain as he healed over the next few months. Conferring with the zoo’s veterinarian, we decided that the non-life threatening broken beak tip would heal on it’s own and he could retain his ticket on the small plane to Mexico.

Since a condor’s beak is the primary weapon of defense from other attacking condors he was automatically relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy when the 5 birds were placed in the large release site aviary. For over 2 months he could be seen feeding off to the side of the group or when the others were absent around the carcass. Any encounters with the others often involved submissive wing-begging displays that kept him under the radar of the more aggressive encounters of the other birds as they ironed out their social differences.

To test how the first releases would go in the new area, three of the five birds would be released first. When the 20’ by 20’ by 10’ high pen, attached to the larger 60’by 60’ by 30’ aviary door was opened to capture the first release candidates, #261 was, by chance within the first group. Since we didn’t know if his low status would have any relevance to when he was released or which group he was released in, he was released with female #18 and Male 58, the two top ranking birds in the group. Remaining behind in the flight pen were #220, the female next in status and the shy female #217 who stayed in the back ground and would have been at the bottom of the hierarchy of the group if it wasn’t for #261’s beak injury.

Our first release turned out to be a near disaster. Golden eagles, a species known to kill condors on occasion, drove both #218 and #259 to the ground with a series of unfriendly strikes, causing the female to remain in the bushes over night and the male to head south. I spent the night with the downed bird and at dawn she had climbed into a small tree seemed fine but headed south low along the ridgeline as well. Neither of the attacked birds would attempt to gain altitude in thermals presumably in fear of further interactions with eagles. Without altitude they could not get the lay of the land so could not orient back to the release pen.

Over the next two weeks they both wandered south separately without food or water. Typically released condors hang close to the release point orienting on the other condors and locking in on the food and water placed out on the release area. Eventually they both had to be trapped back into captivity, one in the chaparral at 3:00 AM about 17 miles to the south and the second that flew nearly as far in another direction and had to be grabbed 50 feet up in a pine tree after dark. Meanwhile our subordinate condor, #261 did exceptionally well. He somehow escaped the wrath of eagles, learned to soar and successfully oriented back to the release pen. Not wanting to have a single condor free through the winter we trapped him and placed him in with the other condors but by then he had learned the area and was flying quite well. Stay tuned for the next installment that looks at springtime releases and the adventures of #261!

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A female juvenile California condor takes her first flight into the wilderness in Baja California’s Sierra San Pedro de Martir release site.

Over the next decade, four to eight condors will be released annually in the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park until the anticipated carrying capacity of 20 pairs is reached. This work involves behavioral research to produce the most successful and socially-adept release candidates, long-term monitoring using radiotelemetry and satellite GPS technology, and studies of environmental carrying capacity. This information is critical in learning how condors utilize and affect their habitat, comparing different release techniques, and identifying and monitoring threats to survival. This work also involves educational outreach in local communities, including development of ecotourism for long-term economic sustainability in the region.

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The day began as did all other days at the field research site: checking our equipment. We had some idea of Murray’s whereabouts because we could detect a faint beeping signal from his collar while still at the field camp. So we set out in the direction of his signal. We followed a goat trail for as long as possible, and then went off into the bush. St. Bees does not have any marked trails, so we started our cross-country trek by following the beeping noises on our radio receiver that hinted at the direction and distance we needed to go to get to Murray. We went through scrub brush, dry river gullies, open grass areas, Eucalyptus forests, thorny vines, and rocky hills; we even walked into the occasional spider web. The going was slow since the temperature was in the low 90s, the humidity was not far behind, and the terrain was ever-changing and steep.

Finally, about three hours after leaving the home base, and having travelled only about 1.2 kilometers (¾ mile), we found Murray resting in a tree. We held a brief strategy session to figure out the best way to get him down from the tree. We each had specific roles in the planned capture, including two student interns from France (Caroline Le Bris and Maud Cloarec), who were working with one of our partners, Alistair Melzer, at Central Queensland University in Australia. With everyone in place and ready, we began to encourage him to descend the tree by shaking burlap bags over his head. He started moving down the tree, paused, looked left and right, and then jumped to the ground. He plopped right in front of Amy, one of the experienced San Diego Zoo koala keepers, who immediately nabbed him. We removed his collar to download the stored data and collected a number of body measurements from him. After that, he went back up his tree, and we went back to the field camp.

One of the biggest mysteries in koala ecology is trying to determine why they move as often as they do and where they go when we are not tracking them. We were really surprised to learn from Murray’s GPS collar that he had spent some time on part of the island that we had never visited! Why did he go there, we wondered? We don’t yet know the answer, but koalas like Murray provide crucial information for koala conservation. By wearing their collar, they can “tell” us where they have been and we can use this type of information to help preserve the proper habitat for Murray, his children, and his relatives throughout Australia.

Fred Bercovitch is head of the San Diego Zoo’s Behavioral Biology Division.

Bill Ellis will be discussing the San Diego Zoo’s koala research program in Australia when he comes to San Diego in April 2008 to present a Special Speakers presentation at the Zoo.

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The “Taiping Four,” as they became known throughout the world, found themselves caught in a political storm. An international campaign was instigated to have them returned to Cameroon. They were seized by the Malaysian authorities in 2004 and first transported to the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa, where they lived until last week, while international diplomatic pressure to have them repatriated to Cameroon steadily increased. Finally, on November 29, 2007, they started their journey home, and I was present when they arrived in Limbe.

The journey from South Africa, via Nairobi/Kenya to Douala (by air), and finally by road to Limbe took 18 hours. Females Abbey, Oyin, Tinu, and the only male, Izan (pictured above), each weigh about 100 kilograms (220 pounds), and are all about 6 years old now. They were each transported in their own separate cage but together so they could see each other through the bars of the adjacent cages throughout the journey. Limbe Wildlife Center veterinarian Felix Lankester accompanied them throughout their journey from South Africa and ensured they had as comfortable a journey as possible.

They arrived at Limbe at 7 p.m., accompanied by a motorcade of government vehicles, including the minister of Wildlife and Forestry himself. They were coaxed into their new quarantine enclosure where they will remain for three months before attempting integration into the existing gorilla group. There was a huge posse of onlookers for this final maneuver, and I was amazed to see no less than six film crews from Cameroon, South Africa, Europe, and the United States documenting their arrival.

I went to see Abbey, Oyin, Tinu, and Izan today in their new home. They were sleeping on the cool floor, lazily playing with each other and seemed perfectly relaxed considering their mammoth journey only a few days ago. Access to them for the public will be limited until they are out of quarantine, but the posters, banners, and flags erected by the local schoolchildren to welcome them back to Cameroon will remain for some time yet.

Gorillas can live as long as many humans, so they have a good portion of their lives ahead of them. Although not free, they have hopefully forgotten some of the trauma of their capture. Probably taken from the bodies of their mothers, who may have been killed for the bushmeat trade, they will be in each other’s company, well fed, and receive good medical care for the rest of their lives. After the quarantine period they can expect to be integrated with the other 11 gorillas and there is the possibility of being released into a semi-natural release site in the coming years.

Diplomatic efforts by the government of Cameroon and the media attention of the return of these gorillas to Cameroon may well be an indication of an ever-increasing realization of the importance of wildlife to the country, both real and symbolic. If there is one expectant consequence of the homecoming of the ‘Taiping Four,’ it is that it will be regarded by future generations as a defining moment in efforts to conserve these most endangered of species in Cameroon.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Conservation Research Fellow for the San Diego Zoo.

Here’s more information about Bethan’s research project.
Read Bethan’s previous blog, Hepatitis E.

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Every morning our valiant leader, Robert Buchanan, woke us with a rousing round of “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning” from the musical, Oklahoma. This morning, however, we (the student ambassadors) decided we were going to turn the tables on the man we have grown to love despite his wake-up duties. At five this morning, I aroused all the girls in the bunkhouse and we silently traipsed into the boys’ bunks to wake them. Together we huddled around Robert’s bunk and bellowed to his infamous tune: “I hate to get up in the morning/ I hate to get out of bed/ I hate to get up in the morning/ I’d rather just sleep instead!—Good morning Robert!” He laughed and complimented our leadership in executing our prank, before all of us headed back to bed to catch a few more zzzzzzz’s before the seven o’clock rendition of “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning.”

Once again, we awoke to the sound of rain on the tundra, but by nine o’clock the temperature had dropped significantly and the droplets had changed to fluffy white snowflakes that blanketed the ground. We all were very excited to finally capture the coveted picture of a white polar bear in the first snow of winter. Although the snow was a definite distraction, we managed to focus on our morning’s task. Because each of us (students) came to Polar Bears International Leadership Camp to prepare for our return home as Arctic ambassadors, we each created an action plan for our communities back home.

My action plan includes activities that I hope to facilitate in schools and other organizations in San Diego. I also hope to initiate new programs in my city. The activities I want to lead include an Eco-Day at local elementary/middle schools that will engage students and their families in a carnival including food, fun, and eco-friendly, educational activities that demonstrate the benefits of an eco-friendly lifestyle. This is a program I hope to organize by the end of the school year. I plan to engage my high school’s Eco-Club to assist me in this endeavor.

Additionally, other ambassadors suggested several programs that I hope will create future tradition in my community, including:
· “Green Line” fashion show that promotes the style of eco-friendly clothes
· “Power Down for Polar Bears”—a day where my school/community would turn off all electricity to conserve energy
· Climate Change Leadership Summit to inspire, inform, and empower concerned teenagers on global climate issues

Finally, throughout this trip I have toted Aurora, a stuffed penguin. I have snapped pictures of Aurora doing everything I have done on this trip. I am planning to write a children’s story about Aurora’s travels in the Arctic to inform youngsters about what they can do to help the cause, using Aurora, the “traveling penguin,” as my emissary to their age group. I also hope to visit Antarctica someday, so that will be Aurora’s “homecoming.” Maybe there is a whole line of children’s books in the works….

Through my experiences over the past two weeks, I have acquired so many leadership skills from my fellow ambassadors and from the scientists and teachers who have facilitated the camp. Everyone brought a different skill to the camp. Tomorrow, when we depart the tundra, we will retain and bring home a part of each other that will contribute to our work as Arctic Ambassadors. I realize, more than ever, the power and obligation I have to INSPIRE, INFORM, and EMPOWER my peers, my community, and my world toward the goal of acknowledging and addressing the issues of global climate change.

From the last day on the tundra,
Ronit

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