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Due to his increased play behaviors and soliciting attention from keepers, we have been housing Yang Yang in Dens One through Three overnight. This way, he can hang out behind the scenes with us while we are closing down the building, and we are able to easily access his den area for any training sessions … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, August 21"

This is the first time I have been around for a panda birthday, and it’s super fun that all four giant pandas are celebrating their birthdays so close to one another. If you have followed the Zoo Atlanta pandas for a while, you know that every year each panda is presented with an ice “cake” … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, August 18"

We recently celebrated World Elephant Day at Zoo Atlanta along with zoological organizations, conservationists, researchers and elephant enthusiasts all over the world. Not only was it an amazing opportunity to raise awareness regarding the status of wild elephants, but it was an opportunity for guests to visit our elephant area and learn just what it … Continue reading "Caring for pachyderm pads"

Ya Lun and Xi Lun have been interested in and playing with bamboo for several months now. However, just in the last couple of weeks, their interactions with bamboo have intensified. Last week, I saw Ya Lun purposefully bite off two leaves and chew them for several minutes before she spit them out. This increased … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, August 16"

Hey, Zoo Atlanta fans! It’s been a busy summer here at Zoo Atlanta, and on recent visits many of you may have noticed our newest addition to the bird family: a baby blue crane! This little ball of fluff was hatched on July 8 to our pair, Don and Peggy, and we could not have … Continue reading "Blue crane chick vet check"

Now that the cubs are older and have been eating leafeater biscuits more reliably and more quickly, we can start the process of training them. We have talked about training in previous posts but to reiterate, all of our training is completely voluntary on the animals’ parts, and it is all positive reinforcement based. Training … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, August 14"

It’s almost party time in PandaLand! This time of year, there are a lot of exciting things happening for the pandas and their keepers. As we near the end of summer and beginning of fall, we will hopefully start to see some cooler weather (I think that may be the Pacific Northwesterner in me being … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, August 11"

Hey there! I’m one of the Zoo’s newer Primate Keepers, and today I’d like to take you through a day caring for the youngest of our group, Keju! So let’s take an adventure through the dense rainforest of Sumatra and Borneo here at Zoo Atlanta. The morning begins bright and early. Keju is waiting on … Continue reading "A day with Keju"

If you were watching PandaCam last week, you may have noticed that the hammock was missing from the dayroom. While the hammock is a well-loved furniture item for all of our pandas, and especially our cubs, it is also an enrichment item. We like to rotate enrichment items every so often to keep them novel. … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, August 9"

The Zoo Atlanta family is saddened to announce the passing of Chantek, a 39-year-old male orangutan, on August 7, 2017. Although his cause of death is not yet known, the Zoo’s Animal Care and Veterinary Teams had been treating Chantek with a regimen of advanced medical therapy targeted at mitigating his progressive heart disease. At … Continue reading "Zoo family mourns passing of Chantek"