Giant Pandas at Zoo Atlanta ~ Lun Lun-Yang-Ya Lun & Xi Lun Family

[queenie]

Photos from ZA facebook videos above

^ Xi Lun reclining on sleeping Ya Lun to eat boo ~ click bigger ~ after clicking to view click return arrow top left back to post

^ Yang playing in ice ~ click bigger ~ after clicking to view click return arrow top left back to post

[queenie]

25 second play video = rolling in pine shavings= https://twitter.com/i/status/1267562168381313025 From a June 1st update, I just found and added up above with May 18th update ^
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Danica W
July 22, 2020
It’s National Zoo Keeper Week! As you have probably seen on Zoo Atlanta social media recently, this week is about appreciating the hard work of animal care professionals and promoting the occupation as a whole. While I am lucky to get to work with a ton of great Animal Care Team members here at Zoo Atlanta, I spend 95% of my days with the other Panda Care Team Primary Keepers, Heather and Amanda. The three of us spend almost all of our time with the giant pandas, making sure they have everything they need. We all have varying degrees of experience, and each bring something different to the team. Heather has been working with the giant pandas for 14 years and knows Lun Lun and Yang Yang extremely well. We rely on her knowledge as our Senior Keeper to problem-solve and make sure we’re adjusting to the pandas’ ever-changing diet and behavioral needs. Amanda, while the newest member of our team, has hit the ground running and her love for the animals and enthusiasm to learn is very clear in everything she does. We all get to collaborate and enjoy watching Ya Lun and Xi Lun grow, celebrate each other’s success, and cringe together when the pandas go through an entire bundle of bamboo they don’t like (while making sure to break and make a mess out of it ) in a matter of seconds. I appreciate both of them and their willingness to accept my antics, which are included but not limited to dance breaks, hiding behind doors and jumping out at them, and pretending to talk for Yang Yang in a thick southern accent. Happy National Zoo Keeper Week, Panda Peeps!
Danica W.
Keeper II, Mammals

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Danica W
July 20, 2020
Whoops! Giant pandas are the masters of falling off of things. When I first started taking care of the pandas, I was very surprised at how something so big could fling itself to the ground at full speed, and get up and do it over and over again. Actually, a lot of times when giant pandas are “falling” off of things, it’s completely intentional. You can tell by their body language and demeanor when falling isn’t quite what they had planned, but they’re built for bouncing right back up. Falling is part of their play routine, and if you watch the twins on PandaCam, you know that jumping and falling off of things is Ya Lun’s signature wresting move. I recently caught a clip from PandaCam that I don’t think was entirely what Xi Lun had planned for her tire swing time, but Ya Lun took it as an opportunity to get the upper hand during their wrestling match. Check out the clip on our social networks later today.
Danica W.
Keeper II, Mammals
18 seconds https://twitter.com/i/status/1285317872756105223

Masters of Falling Off of Things~I don’t think was entirely what Xi Lun had planned for her tire swing time

(from video above ^)

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[JudyB]

Thanks, queenie - I love the video of the one falling off the swing and the other one sliding down.

[queenie]

Thank you Judy, they sure know how to have fun. They are so playful and so is there Daddy Yang, and so smart, he is intently trying to figure out/& working on wrapping himself and moving this firehose ribbon enrichment to the other side of structure.
7/24/20~Yang Playing With Firehose Ribbon Toy~6.36 Min. https://youtu.be/dUt0Uk1IfkE
Daddy Yang Yang is playing with, and almost trying to figure out his firehose enrichment toy on top of the structure. He works so intently and tries to move it different places, like a tug-of-war with it at the end, etc., wearing himself a bit, it seemed. He has always been so playful, interesting and enjoyable to observe.

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[queenie]

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Amanda D.
July 27, 2020
Hello Panda Fans! I know I recently shared an update about Yang and how playful he’s been, but I figured nobody would mind another story about him having fun and being silly. Like I mentioned previously, the Panda Care Team can interact with Yang Yang by doing a training session when he’s behind the scenes, along with playing with him (always through a barrier, of course) before we shift him to another space. Recently, I caught him having some fun with the hanging firehose enrichment that we had attached to the structure. He climbed up top and then would hang upside down, grabbing and biting at the firehose. The next morning as soon as he woke up he went back up to the structure and started playing with it again – dropping down from the perch and running around the dayroom. Even though Yang is 22, he doesn’t act like it. It’s a nice reminder that you’re never too old to have some fun. Be sure to check out a video on our social networks later today!
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals

q. here is an update talking about the firehose ribbons I made the video in above post ^, he is so playful, I put a collage of Yang playing with a blue jollyball above a few posts ago and then saw him playing with another blue enrichment rubber toy the size of a book, sort of, I may find and put on~a series of precious Panda Yang. He has always somersaulted and played with so many toys like their string of pearls, etc.

[queenie]

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Michelle E.
July 29, 2020
The pandas were able to try a new scent recently: smoked paprika. As it turns out, they love it! The first time the twins received it, they self-anointed for about five minutes, much longer than a usual scent holds their attention. Today we put smoked paprika inside a culvert in their dayroom, and they had a blast rolling around in the culvert, getting the smell all over themselves. Lun Lun isn’t as excited about it, but Yang Yang is in favor of using it for its original purpose – he licks it! He’ll also self-anoint after he’s licked it a bit, but it seems he likes the flavor as much as the smell itself. It’s always fun to bring in something new for the pandas to explore!
Michelle E.
Keeper III, Mammals

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Amanda D.
August 3, 2020
Here you’ll see Ya Lun sitting in a special training space. This structure is very helpful because it is mobile, allowing us to pull the bears out into the hallway to do ultrasounds, voluntary injections, or just to get a closer look at them. First, the Panda Care Team will ask for the individual to enter the space, and then we will ensure that the bear is calm and is safely secure before moving the device. This training area is beneficial in a lot of ways, such as when the pandas need their vaccines. Making sure each panda feels comfortable in this space is vital, so staying on top of this training is very important. Ya Lun did great with her training session earlier, and even spent some time in the space eating bamboo and some of her leafeater biscuits. Since she did such an awesome job, we rewarded her with a favorite treat – frozen sugarcane!
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals

[queenie]

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Danica W
August 5, 2020
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that life has been crazy this year. While we are all adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve found it really important to make time for at least one thing that makes me smile every day. Luckily, working with the giant pandas usually offers way more than one chance for smiles each day. Yang Yang has been playful and the girls have been in almost constant wrestling mode. Lun Lun has been prioritizing eating bamboo above all else, so I took some time to give her some enrichment she hadn’t had in a while. This girl LOVES pine shavings, and it was the longest non-food related activity I had seen her partake in for a few days. If you need your reason to smile today, check out a video on our social networks later today!
Danica W.
Keeper II, Mammals

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Amanda D.
August 11, 2020
In today’s update I thought I’d share with you an overview of what a typical day looks like as a member of the Panda Care Team. When the first team member arrives in the morning they check on each bear. For the first half hour it’s just one keeper, so this time is spent feeding the bears who are up and ready for some fresh bamboo. The opening team member also gets weights on the bears and starts the cleaning routine. Once the next keeper arrives, we can start shifting or moving bears around to different spaces. Throughout the day we will also fit in training sessions and play sessions. As you know from recent updates, Yang Yang has been very playful lately and has really been enjoying spending time behind the scenes with the Panda Care Team. Most of the afternoon consists of bringing each bear in to service the dayroom or dens that they were in and provide fresh bamboo and enrichment. If we have some extra free time, we can work on extra projects too. For closing routine, one keeper will weigh out overnight bamboo for each bear. The adults have been averaging 18 kilograms overnight, while Xi Lun and Ya Lun are currently getting around 35 kilograms. At the end of the day, we get a second weight on each bear. Sometimes their weight can fluctuate up to 20 pounds in a day depending on how much they’ve eaten! We record these weights and other updates or notes from the day in our daily log. Finally, we set up the dayrooms and den spaces for overnight so that each bear has enough until we’re back the next morning!
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals

[queenie]

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Heather R
August 17, 2020
No matter how many times I watch Lun Lun eat bamboo, I’m always impressed by her focus, skill, strength, and efficiency as she eats. We often call her “the Bamboo-Eating Machine” and she really is! She can plow through 10 kilograms of bamboo in less than an hour. Lun Lun is also a bit less picky about the bamboo than Yang Yang and her offspring. This week, we had some Arrow bamboo that none of the pandas were eating, except Lun Lun. The pandas usually prefer to eat the stems of Arrow bamboo and rarely eat the leaves; however, Lun Lun didn’t like the stems of this Arrow, so she improvised and ate the leaves instead. I believe Lun Lun learned to be adaptable once she had cubs to care for. She also honed her speed and efficiency in eating after becoming a mom. She never knew when her cub (or cubs) would need her, so she had to take care of herself as quickly as possible. Also, once the cubs were older, they would try to take her food for themselves. Yang Yang has the luxury of taking his time and being choosy about his food because he has never had to devote time caring for offspring. Now that Lun Lun is retired from having cubs, she has retained those eating habits that she picked up as a mom and continues to be our resident Bamboo-Eating Machine.
Heather R.
Senior Keeper, Carnivores
(photo by Heather R.)

q. I believe Mama Lun Lun is looking at Heather in the update, with such a sweet/pretty face & like it says she sure was so devoted in caring for her 7 cubs, as all panda Moms seem to be Speaking of Mamas Mei Xiang is on cubby watch and they say it can be anytime- see video at National Zooviewtopic.php?f=52&t=119&p=371220#p371220

“Mama Lun the Bamboo-Eating Machine”

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[queenie]

viewtopic.php?f=52&t=119&p=371569#top

We have a new Cubby Congratulations Mei Xiang & National Zoo

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[queenie]

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Danica W
August 21, 2020
The training we do at Zoo Atlanta is all based around the animals having the opportunity and choice to participate in their own health care. By asking the animals to present different portions of their bodies, we are able to train for behaviors such as eye and shoulder presents, blood draws, and quick dental checks. The giant pandas are highly food-motivated animals (surprising, I know), so they are usually very eager to participate in training and spend some time with their Care Team. Here you can see me training Yang Yang for some of the basic behaviors he and Lun Lun both know that help us visually check them every day. Again, this helps them help us make sure they are nice and healthy without having to use anesthesia for every checkup. For example, Yang Yang takes quite a long time to chew, so the sessions aren’t super fast-paced. If you have ever observed a training session, the whistle noise you hear is called a “bridge,” and it signals to Yang Yang that he has completed the behavior I’ve asked him for, and that a reward is coming soon. I love training with the giant pandas because it’s a nice way to spend some productive time with them one on one.
Check out our social networks later today for a video!
Danica W.
Keeper II, Mammals
57 seconds ZA Training Video with sound https://www.facebook.com/ZooATL/videos/ ... 528682413/

[queenie]

Happy Birthday Lovely Mama Lun Lun 8/25/20 ~ 23 years old today

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Amanda D.
August 24, 2020
Although Lun Lun:rh:is 22 (turning 23 tomorrow!) and is no longer breeding, female giant pandas can still undergo something known as a pseudopregnancy (or “false pregnancy”). During this time, Lun Lun is experiencing hormonal changes, but she has also been showing a few behavioral signs that indicate to us that she has entered pseudopregnancy. Right now Lun is sleeping more often and not eating as much. While we always try to provide the bears with the option to spend time in different spaces, Lun is choosing to spend most of her time in our behind-the-scenes den spaces right now where she also has the option of spending time in an off-habitat outdoor space connected to one of the dens. While her activity levels are low right now (a perfectly normal response while undergoing pseudopregnancy), when she is up and about, Lun likes to spend some time nest building so the Panda Care Team makes sure to offer her nesting materials like hay and browse.
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals

[queenie]

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Amanda D.
August 28, 2020
During the summer, the giant pandas spend time in our climate-controlled dayrooms and behind-the-scenes den spaces, but recently we had some cooler mornings, which meant that the Panda Care Team was able to give the pandas access to the outdoor habitats. Having the option to use the outdoor habitats was nice because it meant we could change up their environment by moving them to a space that we haven’t been able to use in a while. Last week, Danica and I decided to provide Yang Yang the option of having access to both a dayroom and one of the outdoor habitats. He spent a good amount of time outside foraging for leafeater biscuits, hanging out on the structure, walking around, and investigating new smells, before deciding to come back into the dayroom to eat some yellow groove bamboo before taking a long nap.
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals
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Michelle E.
August 31, 2020
Birthday season is in full swing here in PandaLand! We celebrated Lun Lun’s 23rd birthday last week with some fun enrichment. This Thursday, September 3, we have special surprises for the twins’ 4th birthday, and next week on September 9, we’ll be honoring Yang Yang as he turns 23. All these birthdays mean a lot of preparation of enrichment by the Panda Care Team. There are boxes and banners to paint, scents to select (for the hay inside the boxes), and layers upon layers of ice “cakes” with panda-approved decorations to create. Every year it’s a fun challenge to outdo the previous year’s birthdays and think of new ways to enrich the pandas! And the best part is that after all that work, after cleaning the overnight messes and setting up the dayroom with birthday enrichment, we get to watch the pandas enjoy it! Seeing enrichment be successful with animals is one of the greatest joys of working at the Zoo. Thankfully, we’re able to share that fun with you, too! We hope you’ll join us to watch Ya Lun and Xi Lun receive their birthday enrichment this Thursday, September 3, at 10 a.m. EST on our social media networks.
Michelle E.
Keeper III, Mammals
(photo by Danica W.)
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Michelle E.
September 2, 2020 September 3 Twins Birthday
2 minutes of cakes & party https://www.facebook.com/ZooATL/videos/ ... 2756/?t=19

Happy Birthday, Ya Lun and Xi Lun! The only giant panda twins in the U.S. are 4 today! The Panda Care Team packed the twins’ dayroom area with special birthday enrichment, including ice “cakes” shaped as the numeral 4, sugarcane “candles” with sweet potato “flames,” and birthday boxes filled with favorite treats such as leafeater biscuits, apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes.

Giant pandas are cute; we know that for a fact. However, after establishing the high level of cuteness present, the giant panda’s black-and-white coat is often the first thing we notice about them. And yet we still don’t know for sure why they have their distinctive coloration! A 2017 paper published in the journal Behavioral Ecology analyzed almost 200 species of terrestrial carnivores to try to understand possible correlations in coat color patterns. They confirmed what many have assumed or studied in the past: Animals that live in snowy environments seem to benefit from having light-colored coats to blend in with the snow, and animals in forest environments are often dark to hide in shady areas. Since giant pandas are technically carnivores that eat only bamboo, they are unable to store up enough fat to hibernate through the winter, making them active year-round. For some of the year, the black areas of their fur camouflage them in the dense, leafy bamboo forest, and in the winter their white fur helps them hide in snowy mountains. The paper also had some interesting insights on the color of their ears and eye spots, which we’ll talk about more in a future update!
Paper citation: Tim Caro, Hannah Walker, Zoe Rossman, Megan Hendrix, Theodore Stankowich, Why is the giant panda black and white?, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 28, Issue 3, 01 May-June 2017, Pages 657–667, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arx008
P.S. Be sure to tune in to Zoo Atlanta Facebook and Instagram[size=140] tomorrow (Thursday, September 3) at 10 a.m., when we’ll be celebrating Ya Lun’s and Xi Lun’s 4th birthday! I hope you will join us![/size]
Michelle E.
Keeper III, Mammals

[queenie]

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Michelle E.
September 4, 2020
When Lun Lun is experiencing a pseudopregnancy (as a reminder, a pseudopregnancy is not an actual pregnancy but is a condition that closely mimics pregnancy), she chooses to stay in her behind-the-scenes dens. We often give her the choice to go out into the dayrooms or habitats, but she ignores the open doors. The last couple of years, she has spent most of her time in the maternity den, making a bamboo and hay nest and sleeping in it, as she has been so accustomed to doing with all seven of her cubs. However, this year, in addition to nest-building in her maternity den, she has been sleeping in an outdoor patio that is adjacent to her dens. She has spent more time on the patio during this pseudopregnancy than she has in the dens. The patio might look boring and bare, but Lun Lun is loving it right now! The last time that Lun Lun spent this much time on the patio was during her pregnancy with her third cub, Po. Lun Lun was pregnant with Po in the autumn, so the outdoor temperatures were perfect for pandas. Even though it is warm outside right now, the patio is mostly shaded and the concrete floor stays cool, which is why she can enjoy time out there despite late August/early September temperatures.
Michelle E.
Keeper III, Mammals
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Danica W
September 9, 2020 Yang's birthday video of birthday cake & party
30 seconds https://twitter.com/i/status/1303793200407162880
What a panda-rific day it's been! Today has been all about our birthday boy, Yang Yang (which is perfectly justifiable),

but to round out the pandapalooza, here's Danica W. with an update on some time she spent with Lun Lun. Enjoy! #ZAPandas #OnlyZooATL (video by Danica W.)
This morning when I came in to work, all of the giant pandas were asleep except for Lun Lun. As you have probably read in recent updates, Lun Lun’s pseudopregnancy means that she has been choosing to spend a lot of time behind the scenes resting. She woke up right as I came in, so I spent the first part of my morning sitting outside of her den and just spending some time with her. I always love spending these quiet moments with the pandas before the day gets busy. She was still pretty sleepy, so I gave her time to wake up and then offered her some fresh bamboo and leafeater biscuits. When I got up to walk away, she gave me a look that very clearly read “wait, where are you going?” I have been off of work the last week, and all of the pandas know I’m a pushover, so of course the answer to Lun’s Lun’s question was the freezer. I went straight to the freezer, grabbed Lun Lun a banana, and spent a little more time with her before I got the day started.
Check out a video on our social networks! 32 seconds Mama Lun eating the frozen banana
https://www.facebook.com/ZooATL/videos/ ... 215691767/
Keeper II, Mammals
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[queenie]

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Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals
Amanda D.
September 14, 2020
The Panda Care Team is in constant communication with our Bamboo Team providing them with information such as what species of bamboo the bears are preferring that day, whether they are leafing or culming the bamboo, amongst other things. This helps the Bamboo Team decide on what sites to harvest at and what species to focus on collecting that day. Currently, we are offering the giant pandas a few species: yellow groove (phyllostachys aureosulcata), bambusoides (phyllostachys bambusoides), and henon (phyllostachys nigra). We have just started offering bambusoides, which so far, seems to be a hit. Right now, the giant pandas aren’t eating as much and they have been mostly leafing the bamboo more than culming, but as we enter fall their appetites will increase and they’ll go back to culming more.
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals

[queenie]

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Danica W
September 21, 2020
With the cooler weather we have been able to give the giant pandas more frequent access to their outdoor habitats. Giant pandas’ thick and dense fur makes the Georgia summer heat and humidity a little too steamy for them to be comfortable. We’ve also been giving the giant pandas more frequent access to the habitats when it’s raining, as well. They still have access to an indoor dayroom or behind-the-scenes area, but this way the pandas can choose if they’d like to explore in the rain or spend their time inside. On a particularly cool but sunny day last week, Yang Yang was being very playful so we grabbed the bubble machine and had fun watching him chase the bubbles around while soliciting attention from his Care Team. Such a goof!
Danica W.
Keeper II, Mammals