Zhen: Full of Surprises
Posted at 2:21 pm March 31, 2008 by Heidi Trowbridge
As a zookeeper, I see a lot of animals that change over time. Some changes are subtle and some are significant. This change, however, seemed a little sweeter than most, which is why I want to share it with you. I’m a senior keeper in the Children’s Zoo at the San Diego Zoo, but I occasionally help out at the Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station. It had been a few weeks since I had worked with our giant pandas, along with our newest arrival, Zhen Zhen. I was expecting certain milestones of growth; however, I was surprised when I saw just how many!
Initially I was amazed with how much she had grown and how mobile she was. When I last worked in Panda Canyon, she was still tucked away in her den and did not yet have the ability to move around, much less walk. When I saw her next, not only was she in the outdoor exhibit; she was up in the tree: high up in the tree! At first I was concerned, but then my fellow keepers told me that she does that all the time; the trick is to get her to come down.
Bai Yun seemed comfortable with the keepers and focused on her food more than her little black-and-white bundle of joy. When Zhen Zhen was younger, the slightest strange noise would send Bai Yun into a heightened state of mind, but now she seemed primarily unaffected by the commotion around her and her cub.
As we started raking up the morning bamboo, Zhen Zhen made her way down from the tree. I was impressed with her coordination as she traversed down to the ground. She waddled over to us and wanted to play. Initially she wasn’t sure if I could be trusted and gave me a sideways look. But after she sniffed my hand, her curiosity and playfulness took over and she climbed into my lap as if we were old friends. Maybe she remembered my smell? Maybe not. I let her play with her food bucket. She wrestled it around and clumsily pounced on it. Three minutes of that and she was bored, so I gave her a small piece of apple to practice gnawing on. Apples win as one of the panda’s favorite treats.
All fun must come to an end, so we left the little bear to bamboozle with her mom. I am looking forward to another meeting with our smallest giant panda.
Heidi Trowbridge is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
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March 31st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Heidi!! I am so jealous! I saw some keepers in the enclosure with Zhen the other day and thought how if it were me in there, I wouldn’t be able to resist just scooping her up and giving her a hug! You are a lucky girl, indeed!
March 31st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Thank you for writing Heidi. What a most enjoyable personal experience to have ZZ come and just sit in your lap! We are all envious!! All of you do such an amirable job of keeping us up with day to day life in Pandaland.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Climbed into your lap — I am so envious!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Aww…how sweet is that??? Our widdlest bear is just the cutest…how could you resist not cuddling her and smothering her with kisses??
March 31st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
“. . . after she sniffed my hand, her curiosity and playfulness took over and she climbed into my lap as if we were old friends. . . ”
Oh, how lucky you are! Do you have any idea what most of us would give to be able to experience that? I know it takes years of scooping poop, raking bamboo, and much more I am sure, to become a senior keeper such as you are, but we’d gladly put in the time and effort if we could. Just give her a little squeeze for each of us. She is precious. I especially like her independence and adventurousness.
On another note, as someone else has said, the Wolong cams have been inaccessible for a while now. Does anyone have a clue?
March 31st, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Heidi - I am green with envy - to have a panda in your lap -the dream of all of us - you are so lucky & the zoo is lucky to have such dedicated keepers. Thanks for such a fun update.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Ohhh, I agree with Kris, that little story just touched me so much too! What a job you have Heidi, your a lucky gal! Thanks for taking such great care of ALL the animals over at the ZOO, especially little Zhen Zhen. My question to you is, do you go in the enclosure with BOTH Bai Yun and Zhen Zhen AT THE SAME TIME??? If the answer is YES, then they both must trust you so completely!! Have a great day. Marilyn St. Pete. FL
March 31st, 2008 at 7:09 pm
OMG, you have surely made many of us very envious. I would give a lot to have the amazing Miss Z climb into my lap!! What fun, thank you for sharing that with us.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Heidi, thanks for sharing your fun experience. How much I wish I can be in your shoes and play with Zhen Zhen. I want to hug and kiss her ever since she was born. She is a smart sweet little girl.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I agree with Kris #1–how lucky you are to be able to have our little one jump into your lap! Please give her a pat and a hug for all of us.
The meerkats outdid themselves with closeups of Zhen Zhen and Bai today–there I was in the middle of a very stressful day, and I just had to stop and watch her in the beautiful dappled light. Absolutely breathtaking.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Awwwww, what a cute story! Is Z. going to be given apples from time to time?
March 31st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Wow Heidi!! You are blessed!!! Like Marilyn #7 said, you must be trusted by both mother and child. I would LOVE to be in your shoes when you get to work with the cuter animals… that aren’t creepy crawly that is!! I would just love to kiss and hold little Zoom Zoom…. before she would run away that is!!
March 31st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Oh Heidi!! What a thrill that must have been to have little ZZ just settle in with you and play!! I am several shades of green with envy!! When I was there on Mar. 18, some keepers came into the enclosure to do some tidying up and ZZ took a fancy to the rake that the keepers had leaned against the platform. The fact that this thing was almost four times longer than she is did not faze her a bit. She took that rake handle in her mouth and proceeded to try taking it up the tree! Well, she didn’t quite get it all the way up, but I managed to get some pictures of her attempt to kidnap the rake. Very cute!!
Keep up the great work, Heidi. You and your team do such a wonderful job of looking after these precious creatures.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
What fun Zhen is to watch… and I’m sure she’s even more fun to play with!
I hope someday I’ll get to go to China where I can play with the kindergarten cubs like you did with Zhen. It’s a dream of mine.
So, it’s off to bed I go, dreaming of playing with panda cubs. Thanks Heidi for the inspiration for my sweetest dreams.
Love, Joy
April 1st, 2008 at 3:33 am
Heidi -
how great to have treasured ZoomZoom actually climb into your lap for a cuddle and a piece of her favourite apple. We are all very envious, I am certain you will have given her an extra hug from all her adoring pandaholics.
I heard recently that a lamb born in England ‘resembles’ a Panda - I goggled it and was suprised with my findings, needless to say it has the pet name of Panda.
Is early morning so everyone is catching up with some zzz’s to recharge their batteries for the day day ahead…
April 1st, 2008 at 6:09 am
Heidi, what fun you must have had. I can just imagine the smile on your face and in your heart.
The thrill of having a panda cub voluntarily climb into your lap is undescribable, but you did it perfectly.
We are so jealous, but thankful that the trust of the pandas has been gained by such great care.
Thanks for sharing your very vivid thoughts.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:07 am
“Who is this unfamiliar name authoring a panda blog?’ I thought to myself. Ahh, I see she usually works in the Children’s Zoo. Well Heidi, you can see your blog was much appreciated and touched many of us in a special way. I particularly like the phrase “we left the little bear to bamboozle with her mom”. BAMBOOzle - a word that seems so perfectly panda.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Hello, Heidi thank you for your lovely blog on cute Zhen Zhen. Needless to say that I join the panda bloggers in envying you! However, I must not be ungrateful since I had a truly lucky day, I can assure you all despite April Fools’ Day. Today my husband and I visited Schoenbrunn, Vienna and guess what…. We managed to observe panda baby twice, the first time just napping and turning from one side to the other while resting on a fairly high trunk while his mom Yang Yang was sleeping in the same den and his dad Long Hui munching his bamboo in the adjacent one, separated from his family. That was around 11.30 a.m. After lunch we tried our luck again, since there were only few visitors waiting for Fu Long. The second time was out of this world. Fu Long was still resting on the same tree trunk but this time he charmed all of us by sitting up, stretching his short legs and starting to nibble on a small piece of bamboo. He looked like his mom, just the miniature version. We visitors were allowed to stay for only five minutes, but I am sure that we were able to have the best minutes watching Fu Long. Yang Yang was outside the den so I reckon Fu Long felt like a real king strutting “his stuff”. It goes without saying that today I am the happiest person in the world! It was such a beautiful experience watching his baby panda which I will never ever forget. I can assure you that this was not the last time I visited him and his parents since I am living just 120 km from Vienna, lucky me!!! In the meantime all the best for your pandas and thank you for your dedication with these wonderful animals.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am
What can I say? I agree with absolutely everyone’s comments so far. I want to be there too and have a panda climb on my lap. You are all so very very lucky to work (I would’t call it work- not even the cleaning out parts) at SDZ. I’m going to settle down for the evening now and pretend that my little tortoiseshell kitty is a panda!!!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:02 am
Ruth, I am glad your husband is feeling better, and that you were both able to travel to visit Fu Long. He sounds like quite a cute little panda. He did his best to “put on a show” for you.
I am excited to be going to NZP on Saturday to visit all my animal friends. I have not seen Tai Shan and his parents since Nov 1. Mei and Tian had a great wrestling match that day with many vocalizations. I have great videos I took of them wrestling and also a couple of shots of them jockeying for ownership of a tree branch. I must learn how to upload my photos and videos to flickr or youtube so others can share the excitement. Nov 1 was a magical day for visiting NZP, so I hope that April 5 is too. One of my companions, 12 year old, has never been so she “beside herself with excitement” according to her mom. It will be fun to see things through her eyes. Last time we had a 7 year old and she loved the hippo who did a special fully open mouth charge at the bars for her. She will remember that for life.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
#17 Sharon, Fort Worth - I LOVE the connection you made with Heidi’s word, BAMBOOzle!! I agree, it is so perfect for pandas. So now, we can give more descriptive names to the SD pandas where it concerns their appetites. I would suggest calling Gao Gao the “Master Bamboo-zler Sire Extraordinaire” ‘cuz he so obviously enjoys his bamboo. Bai can be “Laid-back Momma Bamboo-zler ” and Su Lin can be “Young Lady Bamboo-zler Up Her Tree”. And, of course, the littlest one, the irrepressible ZZ, has to be the “Fluffy Butt Bamboo-zler In Training “!!! I’m sure the other pandaholics can come up with other interesting name creations - maybe for the other pandas?
#18 Ruth - I, too, am glad that your husband is much better and was able to enjoy little Fu Long with you. That little guy is just the cutest. I love the little white patch on his right rear foot. I notice that mama Yang is quite protective of her little guy. I’ve seen a couple of videos now in which she’s trying to get him to come down from the heights; sometimes, I cringe at the thought of him falling when Yang tries to retrieve him at such precarious angles.
I’m going to learn how to post my photos on Flickr so I can share them with my fellow pandaholics. I got some great close-ups.
Happy bamboo-zling, pandas!!
April 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
#18 Ruth, thanks, it’s great to hear about Fu Long. I saw a few videos on Youtube about him; he is very cute. I can’t imagine if he can be much cuter than that in person.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Heidi, you are one very very lucky lady. Like all the others, i too are extremely green with ENVY, that Zhen Zhen approached you and chose to climb into your lap. She must have really felt comfortable with you and trusted you aswell.
Hazel #15, the photo was in our national newspapers of the lamb and when i saw it i said straight away, “wow it looks like a panda. You could almost believe that the ewe mated with a male panda”. It was a lovely photo and the lamb looked really cute and cuddly. Someone also said that it looks like the daddy could have been a cow.
Pandafan #21 i hope you can find out how to post your photos on flickr, as i for one will enjoy looking at them.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I’m terribly jealous of you, also! I’d scoop 2 semi loads of panda poo to get the chance to have Little ZZ crawl into my lap!
April 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Ohhhhh! Heidi!!!!!
What a fine treat you received from Star Zhen!!! Oh! Gosh! what we’d all give for the chance to have Zhen or any panda for that matter, on our lap!!! Tomorrow (Wed.) I am taking my youngest grandson(age 4) to the SDZ. There is a chance of rain in the afternoon, so perhaps the Stars will be rollicking and enjoying the weather!!! If they are sleeping, I know he will adore the Meercats and the Otters at the childrens zoo
I have no idea what the title is; however, I found it when I was attempting to view a newscast about the Panda being chosen as an ambassador for the Beijing Olympics. You all might want to just type in Hugging a Panda….Good luck 
To all Pandaholics: There is a video on you tube in which a visitor to a zoo in China, or perhaps Hong Kong Does Get to Hug a Panda
April 1st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Hurray!!! I found the title on You Tube!!! Pandaholics: Go to you tube and type in: Hugging Fu Fu
Would not we all LOVE to be in the same chair!!!! Have lotsafun imagining
April 1st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
#18 Ruth - so glad to hear your husband is better & you were able to see FuLong in person. What a thrill to see a live panda. From the great videos I’ve watched on youtube he’s a handful for Mommy - I know why pandas climb trees but wonder why they have no fear of falling. Mommy’s seem not to mind when they pull their cubs down & they fall on their heads - they must have extra strong neck muscles from all the time they spend with their heads hanging down over a tree limb. Whatever, each one is adorable.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Margaret #20….have fun at NZP! I too make the trek from Northern MI every spring and every fall to see Mei, Tian and Tai Shan. This December it’s to SDZ to see the cute little fluffy butt…although I don’t think she’ll be that tiny by then. They grow so fast.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:29 am
You are sooooooo lucky! Treasure every moment you can with Zhen Zhen,before you know it she wont be able to climb in your lap and she will be off to China
You are very fortunate to work at such a beautiful zoo with fantastic weather,all that poop scooping has to be worth just 30 seconds of a panda cuddle 
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Hello Pandafans and All Animal Lovers,
I got to go the the SDZ again today with my youngest grandson! We/He had an absolutely great time!!
Hmmmm 
We had fun for a couple minutes in the nearby ladies room after I videoed the culprits!! Today, we went to see the Panda Stars on a new route. Actually, this means that on visit 4
Wen we arrived at Bai and Zhen’s space, Bai was napping on her hut and her intrepid daughter was asleep in her tree….Fuzzy Butt (there is a reason for this nickname 
) facing her fans! Then we walked to see the Polar Bears!!! They were in fine form today!!! Two were playing and swimming in the water…neat here also…you can film from above and below the water line 
Also in fine form were the Little Otters at the childrens zoo. Plus!!! My grandson LOVED the Meercats (I knew he would). He watched them and said, “They are friends. They are brothers.” Then he put his hands on the exhibit glass and shouted to the Meercats, ” HI! Hi! Hi!!!” Today, as we watched the little Meercats, I heard this story: One of the Meercat babies has a missing limb. He had to have an amputation due to a problem. The loving caretakers at the SDZ have given him a fantastic name because, truly, he is a STAR awaiting photos/video. His name is: TRIPOD!!!! Perfect!!!
We arrived at 9:20 and the lotsafun began immediately! While walking under a tree right past the entrance, we heard two of the Peacocks ‘talking’ to either visitors or themselves. One of the Peacocks gave me a welcome ‘gift’ on my sweater. My grandson who is 4 yrs. old thought this was pretty funny and I did also….A couple visits ago, my sister got to sit next to a peacock! Me? I caught the remains of peacock digestion
I still haven’t figured out the quickest route, but that is a grand thing! Today, on the way, we saw new monkeys…these were completely black with the exception of totally 70’s white sideburns! Also, a youthful orangetang was once again playing with a burlap bag! peek-a-boo! What a total video moment!! Then!!!
In I think the Ituri Forest….I do get lost easily…we saw 2 pygmy Hippos playing!!!! Or maybe they were baby hippos! As we walked further on, we saw two Huge Hippos playing! I cannot tell you all and all at the SDZ how NEAT these exhibits are!!! One can see above water and through water!!! One Video moment after another!!!! When we arrived at the Panda Stars, Su Lin had finished brunch and we got to see her climb up to the top of her hut to ready herself for a nap
O gosh! I almost forgot~ The Flamingos are now making mud nests!!! Their exhibit has an island and right now it is FILLED with mud nests….looks like a volcanic condo project
Thank You All at the SDZ for making life such an adventure of a lifetime on each and every visit!!!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
thanks Heidi for sharing such a special moment w/ our adorable little girl. We appreciate your hard work and from the sound of it, so does Zhen Zhen.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Once again Bobbi #30, you have made my day. I do believe those peacocks lie in wait for you now! I’m not sure who had the most fun here - you or your Grandson. Lets call it a draw. So, the Meerkat with the bad leg has now had it amputated? That’s a pity, but I know he’ll manage just fine. Tripod - wonder who thought of that one - absolutely brilliant.
Thank you again for your vivid description of your day. I look forward to hearing about your next visit to SDZ.
I haven’t managed to catch ZZ and Bai much over the last week, every time I tune in I can just about see a tiny tiny thing high in a tree; is it a bird, is it a plane, no its ZZ. (Sorry, that was awful!)
Moderator’s note: Just to clarify, Tripod the meerkat lives in the Children’s Zoo. The meerkat pup with the “bum” leg we’ve been reading about in Laura Weiner’s blogs (http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wordpress/default/crowd-pleasing-meerkat-pups/) lives in an exhibit on Elephant Mesa. We also have a meerkat exhibit near the top of Cat Canyon. In our opinion, you cannot have enough meerkats!
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Heidi–I know someone in Texas who would make a great co-worker for you!
What fun and what a special moment for you! I think my life would be complete after I held a baby panda in my lap!
April 4th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Thanks, Moderator for your info regarding Tripod. No, you definitely cannot have enough Meerkats, I agree.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Heidi, you are truly a lucky woman! How fortunate you are not only to get to work with Zhen Zhen, but you got to hold her in your lap!