Panda Updates – Friday, March 9

The cubs have been fully weaned from Lun Lun for four days now. As mentioned in previous posts, things are going smoothly and according to plan for the pandas and their care team. Lun Lun seems to appreciate the time to do what she likes without having to worry about being available for the cubs, and the cubs are spending extra time playing with each other, engaging with their enrichment, and enjoying time spent with their care team. When they aren’t busy with their latest wrestling match, the cubs are doing what giant pandas do best: sleeping. When the cubs were still with Lun Lun, she would often wake them up first thing in the morning when she was hungry. Lun Lun would bring them inside so that we could get a visual check on them and give them their supplemental formula, and being the smart giant panda that she is, quickly correlated that bringing her cubs in meant that it was time for leafeater biscuits or bamboo. This meant that much to the cubs’ disapproval at times, she would wake them up and bring them inside or vocalize for them to follow first thing in the morning. Now that they don’t have the Lun Lun alarm clock going off as the sun comes up, they are typically spending most of the morning snoozing. Ya Lun and Xi Lun are now considered sub-adults, and much like human sub-adults, sometimes sleeping in past Noon just sounds like a solid option!
Danica W.
Swing Keeper I, Mammals