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The giant pandas spending more time in their outdoor habitats presents many more opportunities than just the pandas getting to spend time outside. Their outdoor habitats have fun places to hide enrichment, scatter their leafeater biscuits, and they can enjoy the crisp fall air. For keepers, it means we can do more cleaning projects inside … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, October 20"

Zoo Atlanta is not just about animals. Indeed, people are not just about people. Recent advances in analyzing genetic samples have broken down the former wall that prevented scientists from really describing the bacterial fauna (“microbiome”) that lives on, in, and in association with all forms of life. We now can calculate the number and … Continue reading "The bacterial world of animals"

Cooler weather means more outside time for the giant pandas! Going outside almost daily this past week has resulted in the cubs being much more comfortable in the outdoor space. Yesterday we saw them wrestling and playing outside! Mom still isn’t crazy about spending more than a couple of hours outside, so if you want … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, October 18"

We are all excited about the autumn weather finally arriving to Atlanta. Well, almost arriving. It’s not 80 degrees anymore! We have been taking advantage of these cooler mornings by getting the pandas into the outdoor habitats as early as possible. Due to their incredibly thick fur, the bears are not very tolerant of hot … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, October 16"

I think we’re going to have to pull out some of the tricks we have up our sleeves to entice the twins to eat sweet potato. Sometimes, simply always offering a piece of sweet potato will eventually lead a cub to further investigate the new orange item and then eventually develop a liking for it. … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, October 13"

Hey everyone! I’m McKenzie, and I’m one of our Program Animal Keepers down at the Wieland Wildlife Home. Now that show season is over some of you may wonder what goes on during off-season with all of our program animals. You heard a couple of weeks ago from one of my fellow Program Animal Keepers … Continue reading "On target with chinchilla training"

While we prep for inclement weather at our homes, we also do so at the Zoo. As animal care professionals, one of our number one goals is to keep all the animals under our care safe. Zoo Atlanta has protocols in place for severe weather, whether that be snow (yes, it sometimes snows here in … Continue reading "Caring for primates in inclement weather"

If you’ve been following our panda family for a number of years, you may remember that at least one of our singleton cubs was known for destroying enrichment, or at least being the proverbial fly that broke the camel’s back. It seems that Ya Lun is following in her older brother’s footsteps. On Sunday we … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, September 22"

During our day-to-day routine, animal care staff are constantly monitoring the animals to make sure they are healthy. We watch their behavior, how they move, their appetites, bathroom habits, and how they interact with their environment and conspecifics (other individuals that they share space with). Vocalizations are also a big indicator of an animal’s well-being. … Continue reading "Do you speak tiger?"

Zoo Atlanta joins the global conservation community in celebrating the first-ever World Gorilla Day on Sunday, September 24, 2017. World Gorilla Day creates the opportunity for people all over the world to come together in celebrating gorillas and taking action to protect them in the wild. The inaugural World Gorilla Day also marks the 50th … Continue reading "Celebrate the first-ever World Gorilla Day"