Panda Updates – Friday, June 2

One of my favorite things is watching cub personalities blossom. The girls are still small enough that we can safely clean around them as long as they stay in the dayroom structures. If they’re squirmy, but not wanting to come down and shift inside with their mom, we will offer them a leafeater biscuit or piece of apple or banana to keep them occupied while we clean. This serves a secondary purpose in that it exposes them to solid food more often.

We have definitely noticed preferences between both cubs. Ya Lun is the resident biscuit fiend. She shoes not discriminate between the two types we offer (one is red colored and one is brown colored – they have different nutritional compositions). She likes to nibble on apples, but bananas are way tastier. Xi Lun seems to prefer biscuits over produce, and brown biscuits over red ones. With their supplemental formula, Xi Lun guzzles hers way quicker than Ya Lun. This is ironic because Xi Lun gets offered more formula than her sister because she’s more petite … and in the beginning, Ya Lun was the formula guzzler!

Another difference: If you have a chance to meet the girls at one of our Lun Lun & Cub Wild Encounters, you’ll likely find Xi Lun entertaining herself with one of the jolly balls we place in the den, while Ya Lun is up front and center trying to steal biscuits from her mom! Of course Lun doesn’t allow this, so watching this biscuit-stealing affair is quite entertaining!
Jen W.
Keeper III, Mammals

(photo by Jen W.)