Observer Diapause
Posted at 9:21 am June 5, 2007 by Suzanne HallBai Yun is settling into her new living arrangements well. She has always enjoyed being in what is now a behind-the-scenes area, the classroom exhibit, with the nearby bedroom, garden room, and sunroom. Those long-time visitors to the San Diego Zoo may remember this classroom exhibit as one of our original panda exhibits, and Bai Yun has had access to this area on and off since her arrival here in 1996.
The bedroom area is equipped with the birthing den she has chosen for the birth of each of her three cubs. The den is round and comprised of hard plastic with a wooden floor. Currently, she cannot access the den itself, as most of the time it is sealed of with a door closed by the keepers. In this way, staff prevents any other creatures from using the den in the ” off season,” even creatures like Su Lin, who lived in this same bedroom just a few days ago.
When Bai Yun shows us some behavioral signs of pregnancy (or pseudopregnancy), we will give her access to her den once again. Once the door is opened, we can expect Bai Yun to familiarize herself with the den again. She will usually sniff around intently at first. Within a few days she will probably scratch heartily at the floors, stand bipedal and scratch the plastic walls, and even stare up into the camera housing that looks down at her from the top of the den. Her initial visits to the den will probably be brief as she acclimates to having this new space allotted to her.
Once her hormone profile really climbs, she will probably begin dragging her bamboo meals into the den, where she will sit and munch in the dark recesses of the small area. It’s the first step in her nest-building process. Keepers will continue to clean the bedrooms and other areas Bai Yun has access to, but they will generally leave the den material alone. After many days of Bai Yun’s activity, the buildup of drying bamboo begins to create quite a big heap on the floor of the den.
Bai Yun will begin sleeping in the den from time to time. Even if she is showing the decreased activity consistent with pregnancy, she usually spends most of her time resting outside the den until she is about a week from giving birth. In the last few days prior to the arrival of a cub, Bai Yun enters the den frequently, rifling through the bamboo on the floor. Occasionally, she picks up an old piece to gnaw on. All of this focus on her dry bamboo stash serves to weave the fragrant fibers into a thick mat that will become her bedding during her postpartum days.
Sometimes we will see her sitting in her den, holding a piece of bamboo culm or a food pan she drags in from her bedroom. She will cradle the object in a manner resembling a dam cradling her infant. She may even fall asleep with the item held in her paws, resting for hours in this maternal pose.
In the weeks leading up to a birth, as her progestin profile elevates dramatically, her appetite will begin to wane. Bears who hibernate do so while fasting and give birth in their dens while in this fasting state. Pandas do not hibernate, but they are still driven by many of the same evolutionary factors that have shaped all bear species. Bai Yun will lose her appetite as she gets closer to a birth and will likely fast for several days postpartum.
For now, Bai Yun is showing none of these acute signs of being close to a birth. Her hormone profile has not yet elevated. However, if she is going to give birth in August, as she has done three times before, we would not expect to see those hormones elevate until the end of this month, at the earliest. Until that time, we are in limbo, a type of ” observer diapause,” waiting for the next developments in Bai Yun’s life history.
Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES.
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June 5th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Thanks for the wonderful blog info on our favorite bears. Can anyone tell me if Mei Sheng and Gao Gao are still rotated on Tuesdays from the back to the exhibit with cams 1,2,3? I like to mark it on my calendar. This will help me try to plan a visit so I can see both bears on exhibit. Will the same be true for Su and Bai?
June 5th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Wow, this was a really, really interesting blog topic! It’s really fascinating to discover all the little behaviors of Bai and her family. I hope she will be able to carry her twins to term this year. How exciting that would be!!
June 5th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Thanks for the great explanation, and heads up, Suzanne. It helps to know what to expect to see or hear in SD and DC. It will be interesting to see how close the dates are that the cubs are born, and if either Bai Yun or Mei Xiang produces twins from Papa Gao Gao. It is even more exciting because he is oblivious to any of the attention being given to both pregnancies that he had a huge part in conceiving.
Does Bai Yun raise her head when she hears activity from the keepers or would that indicate she smells something? I noticed that after I observed her ” sniffing” the air for several minutes that she ” disappeared” off camera, so that leads me to believe it was the keepers coming to call her in while they refreshed her exhibit space. She was outside sitting by a log with a huge pile of bamboo at the time.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Speaking of Bai being comfortable in her birthing area, did she seem to pay much attention to Su Lin’s scent in the space? It has been noted that Su Lin did a lot of exploring and sniffing, presumably because she recognized the scent of her mother, although she may not have thought about it being her mother. Since it had been a while since Gao Gao was in that area, it is less likely that she was checking him out, although she might have wondered what the lingering scent was similar to what she smelled when she went off into the front exhibit on the first time during the weaning process.
Has Su Lin acknowledged that she remembered a Howdy gate or any gate leading from her current exhibit to the one next door where she went when she was first on her own? Since studies are being conducted on panda memory, I am curious what they remember and if they do, how do they react. Somewhere I read that a panda reacted years later to the smell of their mother in an area where they had not been for years. I think it was about Bai Yun and her mother.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hi Suzanne - thank you for the update regarding the progress of Bai’s pregnancy (or pseudo preganancy) I am keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well as with her previous three births.
Bai is an experienced mom, I am certain she already has everything organised!
I read all the blogs and understand some people may be concerned regarding Bai’s pregancy. I think Bai’s attitude is a - been there, done that - approach and hopefully will reward you all with a healthy cub who she will permit you to see when she is ready!
You explained there are few visible signs to tell you if Bai is pregnant (psuedo or otherwise) - in some animals when they are pregnant, in the early stages, the females nipples appear to enlarge and change colour for a few hours only! then they revert to normal - have you ever seen any such change with Bai Yun?
Animals such as ‘cats’ can have psuedo preganancies that may continue until ‘full term’ , if they have reason to reabsorb a litter this can happen until late in the pregnancy.
Obviously a very different animal and scenario - Bai has so many ‘panda’ secrets, she only tells you when she is good and ready.
I am pleased to see the youngsters are progressing so well, Mei Sheng looks more like his dad every day and Su Lin is developing into a mini version of her mom.
Thank you all for the care and attention the Panda’s receive - meanwhile as always in the UK I will be watching and waiting…….
June 5th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Wow - although I find all of the blogs interesting and very informative - I have to say that this one was extraordinary. I caught myself saying ” wow” out loud a couple of time while reading it. With all of your experience with Bai and her 3 cubs - you certainly have great research and insight into her pregnancies and behaviors. Great blog - what an amazing animal. Here’s hoping for the pitter patter of tiny panda paws soon!!
June 5th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Thanks, Suzanne, for the fascinating information on the behavior Bai Yun would exhibit if pregnant. Your clear description makes it easy to imagine Bai at each of those stages. I hope we are blessed with another healthy cub. But regardless of what happens, thank you for taking the time to share such detailed information about the animals we love.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Suzanne, as usual thank you for your valuable information which was, this time, really outstanding. It gave me such a good insight into the panda pregnancy and pseudo pregnancy. I found the image of Bai Yun holding a piece of bamboo culm and cradling it like her baby quite moving. Somehow it reminds me of prenatal classes where we human women are being taught how to handle the baby, the only difference being that nature itself, i. e. instinct teaches the panda ” woman” . Having gained all this interesting info from your blog I feel that I am even more being kept in suspense by dear Bai Yun. Needless to say that I am keeping my fingers crossed… I will also be watching and waiting ….. still from Hungary, but soon from Austria. By the way, next week I will be visiting the Vienna Zoo with their panda couple Long Hui and Yang Yang and will certainly try to get as much info as possible from the panda keepers in order to send all of you pandaholics a blog. I am sooooo excited to see ” Franz and Sisi” again, as the Vienna people nicknamed their panda couple.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Would like to share with you some fact data of a field research conducted in Qingling and by Pan Wenshi, a zoology lecturer in Peking U. It is quiet interesting.
” …………[18] As visibility in bamboo forests is poor and pandas are shy, Pan initially got only rare glimpses into the lives of the creatures. It was not until 1987 that permission was given to put radio collars on the pandas, making it easier to locate them.
[19] Jiao Jiao (meaning ” Double Charm” ) was among those collared by Pan’s team. In the spring of 1989, Pan reckoned she was four-and-a-half years old; just mature enough to breed. So when in August the same year Jiao Jiao entered a cave and stayed for several days, he suspected she had given birth.
[20] Looking into the cave from the top, Pan glimpsed her with a baby. After nine days in the cave Jiao Jiao made a foray to hunt for food. Pan and his team examined the infant. It was a male, and they called him Hu Zi– Little Tiger.
[21] Jiao Jiao, who would become one of the world’s most studied wild pandas, moved Hu Zi to a succession of caves. At five months and nine kilos , Hu Zi left the caves for the forest, where Pan often discovered him up a tree while Jiao Jiao fed nearby. Pan regularly weighed Hu Zi and monitored his health but kept a safe distance from Jiao Jiao, who’d once charged at him and Lu Zhi.
[22] Gradually Jiao Jiao became accustomed to the researchers. ” Jiao Jiao, we’ve come to study you, not to harm you,” Pan would say as he approached. Hu Zi followed her everywhere, eating the bamboo she ate. A loving mother, Jiao Jiao presented Hu Zi with toys, such as an old metal washbasin, and let him try to suckle even after he was weaned at 13 months.
[23] Finally, in the spring of 1992, Jiao Jiao mated again, became pregnant, and drove off her first born. Hu Zi took to following an older male. Jiao Jiao gave birth to Xi Wang that autumn. (continued below)
June 6th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[24] As the study continued, Pan and his researchers gained and confirmed many insights into panda society. Most satisfying is the discovery that pandas are polygamous . Researchers previously thought that a dominant male won breeding rights, but females in Pan’s study group have mated with four or more males in a season.
[25] Conservationists can feel especially buoyed by Pan’s study of panda fertility. While pandas have proved notoriously hard to breed in captivity, Pan has corroborated that they can reproduce well in the wild. After the gap of three years between Hu Zi and Xi Wang, Jiao Jiao has given birth every two years. Says Pan, ” As captive pandas are known to be fertile at 20, a female panda could rear perhaps eight young.” DNA tests on pandas in the wild have revealed a good genetic diversity.
[26] ” The Qin Ling population is pretty stable,” says Pan. ” Among the 36 pandas we’ve studied closely, we’ve seen seven deaths and 13 births, with 11 surviving babies.”
[27] Pan has discovered; a mutual accommodation between farmers and pandas. Pandas typically spend the summer months in the alpine zone at 2,400 to 3,000 metres, dropping down to between 1,350 and 2,400 metres in the winter. ” Permanent agriculture has proved impossible at these altitudes,” says Pan. ” So while the lower Qin Ling is mostly farmland, the area above 1,350 metres is like a panda refuge.”
[28] Can the panda be saved? Pan believes so. All it takes is bamboo forests, and peace and quiet. Threats to the panda’s habitat are an ongoing concern. During 1993, timber cutting intensified in Pan’s study area. Once more daring to speak out, Pan wrote to President Jiang Zemin and then-Premier Li Peng, urging that the logging be stopped. Not only was a halt to the timber cutting ordered, but in 1997 the Chinese government designated 305 square kilometres of Pan’s mountainous domain a panda reserve making it one of the prime sanctuaries for the giant panda. About 170 of Qin Ling’s 240 pandas are now in protected areas.
[29] The Chinese government, in cooperation with the WWF, is also implementing a plan to boost protection of the 13 existing panda reserves and to create 14 new ones.
[30] Poaching is also a threat. Seven pandas have been lost to poachers in the Qin Ling mountains in the past 14 years. About ten years ago, wildlife trade investigators found panda pelts selling for up to $ 10,000, allegedly to wealthy expatriate Chinese as well as buyers in Taiwan and Japan. The Chinese government has since introduced legislation stipulating that poaching and dealing in pandas are criminal offences.
[31] In August 1997, Pan visited the Qin Ling study area, expecting most pandas would be in their summer ranges on the high slopes. With him were 13 students who planned to study how the ecology had changed since logging ended.
[32] During the night, Pan heard slow footsteps and breathing noises outside his room. That’s strange, he thought, Why has a panda come down from the mountains? He found Xi Wang standing in front of his door, as if she’d come looking for her old friend. Several days later she went back into the hills and gave birth to her first cub.
[33] In August 1998, Pan received a message via a student at the study site: Jiao Jiao had been seen with her latest baby.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Who is in exhibit with C3 cam today? This morning I thought it was Mei Sheng, but now (12:56 PM PDT) it looks like a smaller restless bear more the size of Su Lin. I expected it to be Mei Sheng because I think he and Gao switched on Tuesday. Are you also switching Su and Sheng to give them more variety and enrichment? And, hopefully to prepare them for a possible introduction to each other???
June 6th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Suzanne - this is one of the most detailed and incredible blogs you’ve ever done and there have been MANY! The crew at SDZ are such experts by now and yet so much is uncertain. I adore these animals and am so envious of your jobs! The 4 US zoos should be VERY proud of the work they have done and all the valuable data they have been able to add about the breeding of this precious animal.
I am quite confident that we will be watching 3 newborns soon along with 9 month Mei Lan and our older youngsters: Mei Sheng, Su Lin & Tai Shan! What a crew we now have!! Fantastic job, all of you!!
June 7th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Kristi #1,
The boys are still rotated, usually on Tuesdays… but of course we reserve the right to change that schedule at any time, so please don’t hold us to it.
Margaret #4,
Bai Yun did quite a bit of sniffing about on her first day in her ” new” space. No doubt she found Su Lin’s scent. She would not have found Gao Gao’s scent, though, because he has never lived in that bedroom/sunroom area.
Hazel #5,
Yes, some physiological changes involving the nipples and vulva are often seen in pregnant and pseudopregnant females.
Ruth #8,
Did you know that the Vienna pandas are also from Wolong? This is the same reserve in China that Bai Yun and Gao Gao are from.
Margaret #9,
Su Lin is not involved in any rotation. She is always the bear you see on cams 4,5,6.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:10 am
I was just looking at the wolong panda club sight and there is a picture of a couple holding a giant panda named Hua Mei could it be our very own first baby or another with the same name, i’m not sure but she looks about the right age. If it is her she is beautiful and good to see her.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:52 am
#12 Barbara - Ha! There’s another Hua Mei! That little one is probably younger than Su. I think our Hua Mei should weigh around 200 lb! You probably don’t want to hold an adult panda on your lap…
June 8th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Sayuri, I am confused……another Hua Mei? But doesn’t our Hua Mei’s name mean ” China/USA” ? Why in the world would someone name another cub this…..unless perhaps there are other translations, which often happens with the various Chinese dialects. Very curious!
June 8th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Thank you, Suzanne, for your info on the Vienna pandas. Yes, I was aware of the fact that they both stem from Wolong like Gao Gao and Bai Yun. So we can truly say that lots of the pandas in the USA and Europe are ” all family” .
June 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
i think Hua Mei can also mean ” Chinese Beauty”
June 11th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Thanks, Suzanne, for the updates. We look forward to news in a couple of months about Bai Yun’s progress. When will you start ultrasounds to check for cub(s)?
June 11th, 2007 at 7:14 am
I read in the DC papers on Friday that Mei Xiang’s hormone levels have started to rise, so they are expectantly waiting to determine if she is pregnant. Meanwhile, DaddyO, Gao Gao, just munches away happily on his bamboo oblivious to the impeding pregnancies and hopeful births of his offspring in the East, and then the West. What a stud!!!
June 11th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Yes, there is a younger Hua Mei In Wolong. The right of naming a panda in China can be sometimes granted to individuals or organizations who makes their donations to the panda centers. There are over tens of thousand characters in Chinese language and it can totally avoid using a single name to different pandas repeatedly. However, it happens frequently.
(Polls from the public has been introduced recently for the naming matters.)
June 11th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Margaret #19,
Bai Yun is already engaged in routine ultrasound exams with our vets.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
to Y. H. Ng: How interesting! Thank you for your posts #9 and 10.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Y.H. Ng thanks for posts 9 & 10. I read about Jiao Jiao in a Feb 1993 National Geographic I picked up at a Goodwill story on Sunday. I later read it online too. It is fascinating information and the pictures of Xi Wang as a newborn are price-less. I wish I had seen your post earlier, as it would have saved me a lot of time searching the internet for more info after I read the magazine.
One of the most interesting facts I read is that Hu Zi took up hanging out with an adult male. Because he was a
” clumsy” adolescent cub, and therefore not a threat, the adult male let him ’shadow’ him around. From the adult male Hu Zi learned about moving around for different bamboo when seasons and supplies changed, finding safe spaces to rest, how to defend himself, and how to stake out his own territory. It seemed to help the transition from being with his mother and going out on his own. Although the article didn’t say so, presumably as Hu Zi became more self-sufficient and sexually mature, he moved on to his own territory. It was also interesting fact that Jiao Jiao didn’t ” run him off” until after she had mated again and was pregnant with Xi Wang. How this timing could be simulated in captivity such as at SDZ is difficult to imagine.
The article also said that Jiao Jiao had fiercely fought with another female who wandered into her territory. Apparently fighting is not confined to males over females, but females will fight with females who ” invade” their territory.
Pan was able to get close enough to Jiao Jiao holding newborn Xi Wang that he could touch Jiao. It amazes me that a wild mother with cub would be relaxed enough to let a human get that close to her cub.
He later went back and one night he heard an animal outside his tent. He looked out in the AM and Xi Wang was standing outside his door. He said it was as if she sensed ” an old friend” was nearby and she came to say hello. She then sauntered off down into the forest. Shortly after that she gave birth to a cub of her own. Maybe it was her way of letting him know of her impending birth (?)
The ” shadowing” of the adult male by Hu Zi reminded me of the discussion of Mei Sheng and Su Lin interacting through the Howdy Gate or in person. I wonder how they will react to each other, and if she will shadow him or they will just sniff for curiousity, maybe do a little play fighting, then voluntarily separate and go their own way. There is only one way to know for sure, and hopefully that will happen in the near future.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Y.H.Ng thank you for sharing the wonderful stories from Pan wenshi’s field research how great that the pandas were tolerant of his presence and allowed him and the others to be so close.It must have been very special for Pan when Xi Wang came to his tent to pay respects to a old friend. How great was it that she was able to get her old friends scent I guess there is hope for the pandas yet with all the special people there to help them and now with the governments help also.