Panda Updates – Friday, November 1

As you might recall from previous panda updates, the Panda Care Team weighs the giant pandas twice a day.  We will grab a few of the giant pandas’ leafeater biscuits and place them on the scale as one team member brings in one of the giant pandas while the other one catches their weight on a reader. Currently, Xi Lun and Ya Lun’s average weights both range around 64 kilograms. Because Xi Lun and Ya Lun are still able to share the same space, the Panda Care Team has come up with creative ways to get both of their weights. One method that has worked for a while now is placing some of Ya Lun’s sweet potato on the scale and some apples from Xi Lun’s diet beside it. Xi Lun doesn’t like sweet potato, so this means we can bring her in first to get a weight, and then since she doesn’t have any interest in sweet potato she will get off the scale, and that’s when we can bring in Ya Lun to grab her weight. That method has worked for quite some time now, but recently, we noticed that Xi Lun ate Ya Lun’s sweet potato! The team has noticed food preferences change before, and in that moment we realized that if Xi Lun suddenly has an interest in sweet potato then we might need a new plan on how to get both of their weights! 
Amanda D.
Keeper I, Mammals