Originally from Zimbabwe, Africa, master shona stone carver Alex Chitura has returned to the Wild Animal Park for the summer. We are lucky to have this very talented man create beautiful works of art right before our eyes!
Every great organization has folks who stand out in their passion for what they do. It’s easy to see in the results of their work. Judy Bell is that type of gardener. She has worked in the Heart of the Zoo (an area that includes Monkey Trails, Absolutely Apes, Gorilla Tropics, and the bonobos) at the San Diego Zoo since 1991. Being in that area for so long, Judy has developed a unique relationship with the primates that probably wouldn’t occur to most visitors. That connection is where the flora meets the fauna.
The last time I wrote, Kasane had been removed from the meerkat group at the San Diego Zoo and Ngami was about ready to give birth (see blog, Meerkats: Never a Dull Moment). As always with this group, there are twists and turns wherever we look. Kasane was put in a holding pen behind the small cats on Elephant Mesa. She was very curious and could be seen from the guest sidewalk. A few times I had someone ask, “Is there supposed to be a meerkat back there?” It was quite funny for people to see nosy little Kasane staring at them from “behind the scenes”!
On July 7, 2008, giant panda female Guo Guo gave birth to twins. Guo Guo is an earthquake survivor that was moved to Bi Feng Xia from Wolong just shortly after the earthquake in China. The birth of her twins was the first post-earthquake birth this year.
It seems that Zhen Zhen and Su Lin are eager to show off their acrobatic skills lately. After a morning observing Zhen Zhen, I counted three occurrences of her twirling around a tree branch, ending in a hang-dangle position before nimbly setting herself down to the ground below. This went on repeatedly for about 30 minutes as she acrobatically made her way down from the tree, grabbed a piece of bamboo, whizzed up the tree, and eventually made her way back down again. It seemed like she was stashing some bamboo up in one of her hammocks. Likewise, Su Lin has been on a roll with playful moves.
It depends. In Africa, elephants can cover over 50 miles (80 kilometers) in a day, if food is scarce, but rarely walk that far. More often they cover a few miles during the day, and sometimes spend most of their time near a water source. The distance that elephant herds travel seems to change during the year. So how about at the Wild Animal Park? How far do our elephants walk in a day?
We’re going to be measuring that. When you come to the Park, you’ll probably see the elephants with a gigantic collar around their necks (as seen above on Musi). The collar doesn’t bother them; in fact, they get used to it quite quickly in the same way that people sometimes forget that they are wearing a ring or watch, or that your dog gets used to wearing a collar.
One of the best ways to get to know your local community is to start at the library. This is exactly what one staff member and several interns from the San Diego Zoo’s Maui Bird Conservation Center (MBCC) decided to do when planning an informational display. The poster included short notes about our program and the four species of native endangered Hawaiian birds reared at the facility, as well as examples of eggs, nene goose feathers, a feeding puppet used for ‘alala chicks, and Maui parrotbill nests used at the Center.
It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Shi Shi, one of the two original giant pandas loaned to us here at the San Diego Zoo. For me, it was especially hard to hear, since his arrival allowed me to become one of the first panda narrators at the Zoo.
A few short weeks after introductions, Kalluk, Chinook, and Tatqiq continue to get reacquainted with each other with continual greetings, lots of sniffing and investigating, and the occasional game of pool tag to help beat the heat. But one thing is for sure: their individual personalities are still shining through here at Polar Bear Plunge at the San Diego Zoo.
Our littlest panda, Zhen Zhen, is growing up fast. As she’s begun to eat more bamboo, she’s awake more, doing the classic “mini-Mom” next to Bai Yun and looking as cute as, well, a panda cub! She amazes and delights us all with her antics, biting and nipping at Mom, swinging and hanging from the tree limbs, learning quickly to grab vegetable treats and take them up into the high branches to keep them out of her mother’s reach (since Bai Yun seems to believe that all food is her food, even from her own cubs).
I watched his last door take shape, from a blank panel to a work of art, knowing it is destined to become a statement and an heirloom for some lucky homeowner. Alex will be working on smaller pieces this summer as well, so we will have opportunities to see and speak with this wonderful artisan through the rest of the summer. 
Along with working so near to the animals, Judy says she loves to work with the keepers in the area who are so passionate about the work they do. She enjoys seeing new keepers coming in who are really interested in doing all they can to enrich the lives of the animals with which they work.
Judy got her degree in the fine arts, along with an associate of science in horticulture. If you get the opportunity to wander through the Heart of the Zoo, you will notice the manifestation of her artful eye in many of the gardens there. See some of her creativity at work in the carnivorous 
Guo Guo successfully mated with Qing Qing again the following day. Guo Guo’s cubs were a product of natural mating and Qing Qing is definitely the father! This is a huge success for the giant pandas and all the research that has lead to this outcome. Guo Guo has overcome a great deal of stress due to the earthquake and transportation to a new facility, and it is amazing that she has done so well. I have spoken with Guo Guo’s keeper this week and she reports that both Guo Guo and her cubs are doing great!
The elephants might also have a bit more “bling” on their legs; look for a leather anklet (pictured at left). It contains a matchbook-sized gadget that records animal movement and works in the same way that a pedometer works for people. Using this information, and comparing it to information from wild elephants, helps us to maintain a healthy herd. 
Yesterday, I was on the elephant cam and saw that huge pool with a lot of water in it, then today, it was empty! What’s up with that? 
The finished display, presented to the public at the Makawao Public Library, was a fun way to introduce our work and a few of Hawaii’s native birds to our local community. It also marked the official start of our volunteer program. 
Shi Shi (whose name loosely translated to “Rock Rock” but was always “Rocky” to me) arrived in the autumn of 1996, an older bear rescued from the wild after serious injuries, believed to have been received during breeding battles with other males. 
In those early days, Shi Shi and Bai Yun, the adult female on loan, rotated on and off exhibit for just a few hours each day. He had the morning shift and occasionally slept in, to the dismay of visitors who had lined up before his entrance. He’d wander out, slow and deliberate, a contrast to Bai Yun, who was born and raised at the Wolong Giant Panda Center and was much younger (as we later learned) than Shi Shi.
He was the curmudgeon to Bai’s playful young self. His agenda was to eat, sleep, and tend to his natural needs, oblivious to the crowd and much else. He’d often curl up behind a rock at the rear of his enclosure, creating teasing frustration for his many fans, who couldn’t see him well. We often joked that we should place a costumed employee in his exhibit instead! One memorable day, Shi Shi sat eating his bamboo; to his side were two wild bunnies. All three were facing forward, one nibbling a folivore biscuit, the other gnawing a piece of carrot, and Shi Shi enjoying his bamboo—truly a peaceable kingdom.
But how much we learned about pandas born in the wild, thanks to Shi Shi! He just did his panda thing, engendering the ultimate question, “When will the panda wake up?” My favorite version of this question was “When will the panda awaken and romp?” It was a sweet and funny question, since we knew him well at that point! But one day, while working as a panda narrator, there was a 30-degree temperature drop in 2 hours, serious cloud cover, and thunder and wind—the one and only sleet storm I’ve seen in San Diego in 20 years. I was overjoyed to see Shi Shi suddenly rouse—and ROMP! For 20 minutes he scampered, trotted, turned, and (almost) jumped! Cold as I was, it was the most extraordinary treat, shared that day by just a dozen or so guests. For all the hours that I had watched him sleep, it was a glimpse of the Shi Shi he might have been in his younger days. What a privilege to see that day—I’ll never forget it.
As for Chinook (pictured at left), she is still up to her bone antics. In preparation for introductions, we had stopped giving her a bone on exhibit on the slight chance she decided to hide it in the stash pipe, making it irretrievable (see Kelly’s blog, 
Fortunately, Tatqiq (at right) was quick to retrieve it and start the day off with a play session. Tatqiq is very good about getting what she wants. She plays Keep Away with her brother or misleads him into thinking he wants a different toy when all along all she wants to do is get the one he has away from him. But either way, she’s been enjoying the warmer weather and regularly goes for a swim. And if she really wants some alone time, she’ll take her favorite toy and head up to the shallow pool just below the waterfall. This is barely big enough for Tatqiq, let alone three bears, although I must admit I’ve seen all three in there!