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Giant pandas have a powerful jaw structure that helps them break the tough exterior of bamboo. Their jaw muscles are attached at the sagittal crest at the tops of their heads, which is what allows them to have such a strong jaw force. Giant pandas also have some unique features regarding their dentition compared with … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, July 8"

It’s a special day for the Panda Care Team because Po’s twins are 1 today! If you’re new to the Atlanta pandas, Po was Lun Lun Lun’s third and first female cub. She was born Nov. 3, 2010, and lived with Lun Lun until she was weaned in spring 2013. She moved to the Chengdu … Continue reading "Panda updates – Monday, July 6"

Giant pandas and red pandas are not closely related, with their most common ancestor living over 40 million years ago. So, why is it that two very different animals have similar adaptations to eat an almost exclusively bamboo diet? For many years, scientists were perplexed by the similarity. “Exactly how such evolutionary distant animals evolved … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, June 29"

In my 14-plus years as a member of the Panda Care Team at Zoo Atlanta, I have never worked a day in June where the pandas have been in the outdoor habitats all day. Usually, in June, it’s too warm by the time we arrive in the morning for them to go outside at all. … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, June 26"

During this time, the Carnivore Team has changed up the way we do a few things to ensure the safety and well-being of the animals are being met. You’ve probably already seen that all Zoo Atlanta team members and animal care professionals are wearing masks, and additionally, are maintaining social distance with other Zoo Atlanta … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, June 17"

With the warmer weather, we almost always have one (or two if it’s the twins) giant pandas behind the scenes with us. As mentioned in previous updates, the giant pandas enjoy these days, because in their opinion we are more easily accessible to give them as many leafeater biscuits as they may need. We like … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, June 15"

Now that bamboo shoot season is done, it is time for the next type of bamboo. We just started offering a favorite of the giant pandas at this time of year, arrow bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica). As one might imagine, it has been a hit so far. Arrow bamboo is a really long and skinny bamboo … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, June 10"

June 7 would have been Idgie the red panda’s 14th birthday. Even though we had to say goodbye to her in April due to age-related decline in health, we are still working hard to raise awareness for her wild counterparts and continue the impact on red panda conservation that Idgie created. Zoo Atlanta has partnered … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, June 8"

All is well in PandaLand. Just as Danica and Heather mentioned in recent updates, over the past month, all of the bears were eating bamboo shoots like there was no tomorrow. On one occasion, we went through almost 150 kilograms of shoots just in a few days’ time (not including what was offered overnight)! When … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, June 5"

Giant pandas have super thick fur, so they are not very heat tolerant and don’t usually want to be outside during Georgia summers. On most days by about Noon, it is too warm to have the pandas in the outdoor habitats, so two groups go to the climate-controlled indoor dayrooms, and one group stays in … Continue reading "Panda Updates -Monday, June 1"