Panda Updates- Monday, April 11

We recently had something exciting happen in the bamboo-universe: We’re offering Yellow Groove bamboo! Here in Atlanta, we are very fortunate to be able to harvest fresh bamboo for the giant pandas. Based on quantity and availability in the Atlanta area, we offer the pandas up to around 15 of the bamboo species that grow in the state of Georgia. Zoo Atlanta has a dedicated Bamboo Team who visits sites within a 60-mile radius of the Zoo, evaluates sites for quality, and then cuts and harvests all of the bamboo we offer the pandas. We must be mindful of how much bamboo we are harvesting to ensure that the sites we harvest from have enough bamboo regenerating to be sustainable for future harvests. This means our Bamboo Team doesn’t continually cut from the same place all the time.

To take a break to give bamboo stands more time to grow back a bit, we had been primarily feeding Henon bamboo recently. We reintroduced some Yellow Groove back into the pandas’ diets, and while it is not unusual for the pandas to reject a portion of the bamboo offered (one reason why we supply them with so much bamboo), they have completely shredded every bite – which also led to some epic naps, as demonstrated here by Xi Lun. (Photo: Megan H.)