Panda Updates – Wednesday, December 19

Due to the rainy weather recently, we weren’t able to use our outdoor habitats. When this happens we have one of the bears (or two if it’s Ya Lun and Xi Lun) spend the day behind the scenes with us. They really seem to enjoy the extra interaction with their care team, and we certainly enjoy it as well. It provides a great opportunity for training sessions, extra enrichment, and spending quality time building our relationships with them. I have only ever known Lun Lun as a mother caring for her young, so it’s been really fun for me to get to know her more as an individual giant panda. She sleeps a lot more and isn’t as much of a vacuum with her leafeater biscuits as she used to be. This is to be expected, as sleeping and getting all of her leafeater biscuits became much more complicated with two growing cubs running around. She has always been a great panda mom and charismatic bear to work with, but it will be fun for us to get to know Lun Lun as an individual.
Danica W.
Keeper I, Mammals

(photo by B. Smith)