Panda Updates – Friday, May 3

*Sings* It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Nope, not the holidays! Bamboo shoot season! We’ve mentioned it a lot lately, but words cannot accurately describe how much easier life is with giant pandas when you have delicious, juicy, sugary bamboo shoots! Since the shoots are packed with so much water and sugar, the bears gorge themselves hard and then crash even harder for their many naps! Weight-wise, we are still offering the pandas the same amount of food, but they eat all of it so they are full for longer periods of time. This has given the team some much-needed project time to work on personal goals or other tasks, like prepping for The Beastly Feast tomorrow! This is our annual black-tie gala event that also happens to be one of biggest fundraising events to help promote Zoo Atlanta’s conservation mission. As this is such an important event, teams all across the Zoo are spending extra time (which is precious to us!) making the habitats and spaces looking their best. For the Panda Care Team, this is hard to do when the bears are being their typical picky selves. Thankfully, Beastly Feast and shoot season overlap, so it makes things a lot easier for us. The bears don’t care, though. They’re just beyond happy to be eating shoots!
Jen W.
Keeper III, Mammals

(photo by Jen W.)