Weighing Su Lin
Posted at 2:52 pm January 25, 2006 by Panda Research Team
Many of you pandaholics have expressed how much you are missing Su Lin’s weekly exams. We miss doing them also. But today we made special plans to be able to meet with our nutritionist, Dr. Mike Schlegal, to at least get her growth measurements. The planning needed to involve early morning since Su Lin seems to go out onto exhibit first thing and climbs high up into the trees (and out of reach!). But today we fed Bai Yun an exceptionally large breakfast of her favorite bamboo in hopes they would both be content to snuggle down in the bedroom longer. It worked!
So what was the weighing and measuring like? Su Lin has grown so much and is no longer the sleepy little fur ball. She seems convinced that we are there simply for her to play with. Luckily for us, rubbing and scratching her tummy works wonders to get her distracted while we take measurements. Su Lin weighs 19.4 pounds (8.8 kilograms) and is 34 inches (86.5 centimeters) long. She is so very much fun and quite confident in all she does. But it is during the time we have handling her we are so reminded that she is a wild animal. Her teeth and claws, although just used in play right now, could cause great harm as she gets bigger!
We use the relationships we form through training to work with our pandas to get the incredible information we use to help with their care and conservation. We have begun some training with Su Lin to encourage her to come when we call her in hopes that she will come out of the trees for more regularly scheduled exams. So please keep in mind as you fall in love with our “little bit of something sweet” that she truly is a beautiful, intelligent, and wild animal. Fall in love with this beauty, not just the cute adorable face.
Posted by the San Diego Zoo’s giant panda keepers.
View giant pandas on Panda Cam.
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January 25th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
I am a traveling Medical Lab Tech and have enjoyed watching Su Lin grow. I came to my present job in Aug. and that is when I discovered your Panda Cam. Thank you so much for this highly enjoyable passtime. I hope to continue to enjoy her and her growth. I know all I have introduced her to will, too. So thank you again for all you have given me and the world by sharing your pandas and your job with us.
January 25th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
We should have guessed that Su Lin’s frequent trips high into the trees was a reason that she is so difficult to corral for exams. She is not always cooperative with what Bai Yun wants her to do, either. I know I often forget that these unbearably (pun intended) adorable creatures are not in this world for our entertainment, although they do entertain us just by being what they are naturally. Su’s weight of 19 pounds is quite an increase, but she’s not too close to her butterball cousin Tai’s almost 30 pounds. They’re both growing too fast for my liking, but at least we know they’re healthy.
January 25th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I have a question about Basi, who came to visit in 1987–is she the same panda they pictured in the news celebrating her 25th birthday with her keepers–sitting in a chair, wearing a crown, and eating “cake” with a fork on December 18??? Goodness, she is well mannered! P.S. I just love little Su Lin!!! (And the others, too!!)
January 25th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Thank you so much for the new info on Su Lin. I have been missing her exams. I admire all of you for trying to keep us updated on her well being. It is so hard to think of her as a wild animal, but I know it is true. Seeing her climb high in the trees is so heart stopping, but she seems to know what she is doing. I miss the quiet times she used to have with mom, although I have caught some lately. Thanks again.
January 25th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Wow! Thanks for the blog above about weighing our little sweetie Su Lin! I love that photo of her taken on 1.18.06:) She looks just absolutely adorable and so very, VERY PRECIOUS!!! I still remember the days of watching her in her circular den either sleeping or crawling around. Now that little baby is growing so fast!!!
January 25th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Our family is visiting the zoo in February (from Michigan) and has fallen in love with Su Lin! We watch her daily and were especially thrilled one day to see her and Bai Yun cuddling and playing together. They are amazing! We can’t wait to see them both. They look like stuffed animals that have come to life! Keep up the great work!
January 25th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Thanks so much Panda Research Team for the update on Su Lin. The “little baby” gained more than 3 pounds in 3 weeks? Bai Yun’s milk must be very nutritious! I really appreciated the wonderful new picture of Su Lin, but most of all, all your efforts in keeping us panda lovers informed–especially when you have so many more pressing responsibilities. We’re grateful for your time and understanding. It’s so heartwarming to see the little beauty growing into a strong, healthy, contented big beauty.
January 25th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Every Wednesday I check for a new video of our lovely baby bear. Su’s weekly exams are a high point for many of us, that’s for sure. I know that she must be allowed to experience life as a Panda cub and not as a video play pet. But I appreciate all the efforts that have been made by the San Diego Zoo staff to allow we pandaholics to watch this happy little bit of God’s creation grow and develop. Su Lin is so intelligent and so beautiful. And it is obvious that she cares for the people who care for her.
January 25th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
To #3 - I think Basi in China (25 years-old) is the same panda that came to the SDZ in 1987. Somewhere I have a red SDZ sweatshirt from that visit. This April, hopefully those of us who go to China will be able to see her. It’s something that I’m looking forward to doing. (;-)
Thank you Panda Research Team members and camera operators for making this a great year for pandas and people, too!!!
January 25th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I totally agree with comment #8, she wrote all that I want to say !
I appreciate the newest photo of Su Lin , it shows the lovely temperament of the little darling.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I enjoy getting to see Su Lin. I check on both her and Tai several times a day. Thanks to the entire team for all of their hard work with these beautiful wild creatures.Thanks for the updates.
January 25th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Bai Yun just tried to get Su Lin down from her tree… I guess Su Lin climbed higher and Bai Yun will try again later! She (Bai Yun) just climbed down and is now crusing the yard:)
January 25th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Our babies Tai and Su are growing very fast. Tai just looks chubbier everytime I see him. I watch zookeeper pick up Tai. As they grow bigger, how do you train them not bite you when you handle them as you can’t use solid food as an incentive just yet. It must be a wonderful job to have hands on with these precious cubs but after all they do have sharp teeth. I see the way Tai wrestles with his mom and wonder if Su and Tai act the same way towards people as their mother?
Thank you for your blog. It has enriched my life and I love watching the web cam. There is never a dull moment with Tai but with Su, she seems so passive compared to her cousin. I wish she would be more playful with her mom as she seems so kept to herself. Maybe I’m not watching the cam at the right time but she seems to always be up in the tree?
January 26th, 2006 at 4:33 am
Hiya everyone,
Thanks for the latest information on Su Lin. Wow, such a big girl now and in such good health. Mum’s care and nurture and the love and care of all of you have helped her to be the beautiful girl she is growing into day by day.
Take care
Valerie Warburton - UK.
January 26th, 2006 at 4:57 am
I have been an animal lover all my life (won’t even step on an ant hill). Silly, I know, but I have such love and respect for all these beautiful (and not so beautiful) treasures of ours. So, I love anything and everything about our pandas. I still hope that someday I will get to the zoo to see our babies, but am legally blind now so the cams bring me such joy. You bloggers also make me laugh and ponder. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a Pandaholic Bloggers Day at the zoo and all of us get together? I feel I know you already and would like to meet you all. Candy
January 26th, 2006 at 5:08 am
I miss seeing Su Lin close up now that she spends a great deal of time in the trees. Perhaps this is why Bai Yun sometimes knocks her out of the tree to make her spend some time with her on the ground. The babies are growing up so fast.
January 26th, 2006 at 6:04 am
Su Lin is such a pretty panda! I’ve watched her sleeping in the trees just as Mei Sheng did. Tuned into the cam one night about 3am CST and even though it was dark, could see Su Lin nursing while Bai Yun leaned against a tree.
January 26th, 2006 at 6:34 am
Thank you so much for that information, I have been wondering how big she was getting. When I was out there Mei Sheng was also still a baby cub and he fell from the tree and my daughter said “ooh no” very loudly and was told by the panda caretaker at that time “shhh” because pandas had to learn to do these things and in the wild if he fell from the tree it would be natural.
January 26th, 2006 at 7:07 am
Isn’t Gao Gao a real king, despite his smaller size? The expressions and features of his face are so vivid and unique, and he seems to have the whole world in control when he eats! Also, Su Lin is really catching up with her tubby cousin, who now gains more weight than length. Before, he was almost twice as heavy as her. Now she is only 10 pounds behind! Su Lin seems an “aloof” bear, though.
January 26th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Ohhhh, Su Lin is awesome !! So glad I was able to watch her from day one !!
We Luff her !!
January 26th, 2006 at 8:27 am
Su Lin, Bai Yun, and Gao Gao have my heart!!
January 26th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Su Lin is adorable, and it’s fun to watch her grow before our eyes on the panda cam. But I’ve been wondering about Mei Sheng, too. Can you tell yet if he will be a big bear, like his mama Bai Yun and grandpa Pan Pan, or will he be a smaller bear like his daddy Gao Gao? The Animal Bytes info says that male pandas aren’t mature until they are 6 or 7. Does that mean Mei Sheng will continue to grow steadily over the next four years? Or do we even know that much about panda growth patterns? Just curious. Thanks for sharing all the wonderful work you do with us!!!
January 26th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Amy, your comment got my curiosity up….so I was comparing the weights of the adult pandas. I had thought Bai Yun, at 220, was a good sized lady, but notice Tai’s mom Mei Xiang is 15 or so lbs. heavier.
What really shocked me is comparing Gao Gao and Tian Tian. Our sweet-faced gent comes in at 174, but Tian outweighs him by 100 lbs.!
Now that is one BIG bear, lol.
Regardless of how big or small, they are all the prettiest, most awe-inspiring, and most charmingly lovable bears in the world.
January 26th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Thank you so much for the new update of Su Lin (aka Bao Bei). It has been wonderful seeing her grow and I am happy that she is out and about so I can see her when visiting the zoo. Although the updates are not as frequent, I am very happy to hear new updates now and then. She is the cutest little thing in the world and at night when she plays with her mom, it washes away all the problems in the world and just makes me smile.
January 27th, 2006 at 6:58 am
I always want to know how the panda bears are doing. Yes, I am an animal lover.
January 27th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Thanks for the update!! I have noticed Su Lin likes to be up high. Sometimes when I am watching I see the “humans” cleaning the area. Do you call the pandas in when you need to go in and clean? I remember one time seeing the keepers in the area and Su Lin was asleep in a tree; just wondered if they have to come in before the area gets spiffed up?
It is interesting to see that Bai Yun and Su Lin play a lot later in the evening. Makes me wonder if Su Lin is not too pleased with the crowds so hides out in the trees until they are gone.
January 27th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I saw Mei Sheng exhibit some awesome climbing skills the other day. I was lucky to catch him on-camera as I don’t see much of him. He climbed the big tree next to the hollow stump, and when he couldn’t go any higher, he turned around and came down HEAD FIRST! Then he hooked his hind feet around a branch and swung himself over to the top of the stump and dropped down into it. It was like a circus act!
He really seems like a sweet little guy — very good-natured.
January 27th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I watched Bai Yun playing with Su Lin in their “bedroom” this morning and it seemed to me that Su Lin was through playing before her mother and began trying to escape. Bai Yun pursued her several times and roughed her up some more. Am I misinterpreting what I’m seeing?
January 27th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
To #28 - I was told by one of the keepers that Bai Yun really likes to play, and she even woke Hua Mei from a nap at times so she’d have a playmate. I remember Bai Yun and Hua Mei playing in the sawdust piles that they were given from time to time. Bai Yun would roll Hua Mei around like she was trying to coat her with “breadcrumbs”. Once she even led Hua Mei over to the water bowl first, and made sure she got good and wet before going to the sawdust. The sawdust stayed on a lot better on a wet panda. It didn’t seem as though Hua Mei enjoyed this as much as Bai Yun did.
January 27th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
#29, Betty, I am so amused by your vivid description!
Bai Yun is a very playful panda mom. But she was much younger then with Hua Mei. It is kinda sad to think Bai Yun is already 13 or 14? She reminded us time flies! even with pandas…
January 27th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Bai Yun is a Panda with a great sense of humor:) I am sure if she could, she’d play practical jokes on the keepers as well
January 27th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Betty,LOL,sounds like mama Bai played a panda practical joke on Hua Mei. What I wouldn’t give to see that one. Thanks for the smile…..
January 27th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Su Lin is the world’s cutest baby panda! I appreciate the work of the San Diego Zoo keepers, keeping the exhibit more ‘natural’ so that Su Lin can learn important panda skills….such as climbing. It is so informative to watch a young panda in a native environment. And I love checking in on Su Lin and her mother late at night, catching them in a late-night wrestling session. I would just like to thank all of the handlers who make panda cam possible.
January 28th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Hard to believe this is our little stick of butter! Thank you so much for the new pictures with her keeper. It’s amazing how small she still looks next to Bai, yet she’s grown so much! I look forward to seeing her grow into all that she will become.
January 28th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Does Su Lin recognize her name? If so, when did she start to respond? She seems to be building a lot of muscles by climbing up and down.
And Happy New Year to our pandas. They are Chinese after all. Anything special planned for Sunday? I know for sure pandas won’t like fire crackers! Leaf eater biscuits are red, maybe that should do.
January 28th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
To #29–That’s almost hilarious! I can’t believe that Bai Yun is so playfully mischieveous that she’d actually put her own cubs through such activities for her own entertainment. I almost laughed when I read your comment. Poor Hua Mei was all coated in sawdust and probably couldn’t get it offf her coat of fur for a good while.
January 28th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
To #30, 31, 32 & 36 - I didn’t tell you the complete sawdust story. On the way to the water bowl, Bai Yun stuck her foot out and tripped Hua Mei, and Hua Mei did a complete somersault in the air! I know it sounds unbelieveable, but I actually got a picture of Hua Mei upside down in mid-air. There’s no way to post it here, but it actually happened! Bai Yun is a real jokester! I saw Hua Mei play jokes on mom, too!
January 29th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
#37, Betty: Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us! You make it sound so vivid that we can actually picture it. This sounds so adorable, and now that we’ve all seen Hua Mei’s beautiful Taiwan-bound son, it’s fun to imagine whether he inherited this playfulness from his mother and grandmother–and enjoyed moments just like it with Hua Mei himself! Can you just imagine a similar somersault happening on Chinese soil with Hua Mei’s foot sticking out?! Now that Bai Yun has no fewer than four grandchildren, perhaps they’ve all had fun like this! Who says life as an endangered species has to be all seriousness?! Thank you!
January 29th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
To #37 - Thanks for sharing the humorous stories about Bai Yun and Hua Mei. That must have been hilarious to see! I’m constantly amazed by how smart these bears are. (;-) It would be great to be there in person.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Oh my God! I can’t believe Bai Yun. She is the funniest panda. I didn’t get to see the interaction wih Hua Mei, but I have caught some pretty funny moments between her and Su Lin. I will never forget her shoving Su Lin off the limb last week. Not once but twice and trying to keep her off camera. It was like she wanted the spotlight, but Su Lin just kept trotting back in.
I love these bears!
March 16th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
You are absolutely correct. Su Lin and Tai Shan are not just adorable and cute cubs. I have been watching Su Lin and Tai Shan regularly on the panda webcams since their births. Seeing them growing up, interacting with their moms, they are not just little panda cubs. Their behavior just amazes me; like a little child, so smart and so beautiful. I used to tell friends and family nothing in this world would I have a passion for. I am now almost 50 years old and I am telling you, the more I follow up and watch Su and Tai grow up, they are totally capturing my heart and soul. Even mommies Bai Yun and Mei Xiang, the way they care for their youngsters is just amazing, so gentle, so loving and so caring. Far more better than I can say for some human beings caring for their children. I learned about Lei Lei; she lost one of her front paws but still managed taking great care of her cub. My heart goes out to her. She is just incredible! God bless them all.