Panda Updates – Friday, March 31

Mulch! If you’ve stopped by our panda viewing and checked out the dayrooms, you might have noticed that the rooms got a bit of a facelift! We added another roughly eight inches of mulch to both dayrooms on Wednesday. The overall thickness of the mulch is around 18 inches (with dirt underneath), and every year we either dig it all out and replace everything or top it off. The mulch settles and starts to break down into smaller pieces over time, plus we inevitably pick a little mulch up when we clean the dayrooms (think raking and poop pickup). Because of this, once the mulch gets to a certain level we will add more. This is a huge team effort across many departments, especially in the years where we dig it ALL out. It’s also great enrichment! The adults are used to seeing fresh mulch, so neither of them were really spooked or surprised at the new aroma and texture. The twins were initially a bit wary of their “new” surroundings, but as long as Mom is calm and relaxed, the cubs will (and did) quickly settle in. I wonder if they’ll notice that their tumbles off the structures are a bit shorter!
Jen W.
Keeper III, Mammals