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Red panda tongues are very cute, but they also serve an important purpose. Red pandas use their tongues to check out odors and scent marks in their environment. They do this by using an enlarged papillae on the bottom tip of their tongue to carry liquid up to their mouth and test it. They are … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, June 9"

As we recently shared, bamboo shoot season was over for the year last week. It’s never long enough! Sigh. We did have some nice Henon bamboo and Arrow bamboo for them to eat. We also do leafeater biscuit feedings with the pandas to help them transition back to mature bamboo. As we do every year, … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, June 7"

We are officially coming up on the end of bamboo shoot season. Very soon, the pandas will go back to their regular diet of bamboo stalks. Although it appears that they are eating the entire stalk, they are actually eating the softer inner layer of the stalk, called the culm. As the summer approaches, giant … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, June 2"

The pandas were able to try a new scent recently: smoked paprika. As it turns out, they love it! The first time the twins received it, they self-anointed for about five minutes, much longer than a usual scent holds their attention. Today we put smoked paprika inside a culvert in their dayroom, and they had … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Wednesday, July 29"

Hello Panda Fans! I know I recently shared an update about Yang and how playful he’s been, but I figured nobody would mind another story about him having fun and being silly. Like I mentioned previously, the Panda Care Team can interact with Yang Yang by doing a training session when he’s behind the scenes, … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Monday, July 27"

It’s National Zoo Keeper Week! As you have probably seen on Zoo Atlanta social media recently, this week is about appreciating the hard work of animal care professionals and promoting the occupation as a whole. While I am lucky to get to work with a ton of great Animal Care Team members here at Zoo … Continue reading "Panda updates – Wednesday, July 22"

Giant pandas are the masters of falling off of things. When I first started taking care of the pandas, I was very surprised at how something so big could fling itself to the ground at full speed, and get up and do it over and over again. Actually, a lot of times when giant pandas … Continue reading "Panda updates – Monday, July 20"

Friday, July 17 As Michelle E. mentioned the other day, the panda office contains monitors that allow us to view multiple spaces throughout the building, which helps us to determine next steps in routine as we check on each bear. One day, while I was checking on everyone, I noticed that Ya Lun was still napping … Continue reading "Panda updates – Friday, July 17"

So many of you tune in to our PandaCam daily, but did you know that we do too? Our office is filled with monitors showing views of the pandas. They show the dayrooms, the outdoor habitats, and the behind-the-scenes dens. It is difficult for us to see directly into the panda dayrooms from behind the … Continue reading "Panda updates – Wednesday, July 15"

As you probably recall reading from past panda updates, when Yang Yang is feeling playful, the Panda Care Team can do things like play-chase where we run on our side of the mesh (there’s always a protective barrier between us and a bear), as well as tug-of-war (which always results in Yang winning, of course). … Continue reading "Panda updates – Monday, July 13"