Panda Updates – Monday May 20

ZooAtlanta
May 20, 2024

Even though the weather is getting warmer here in Atlanta, did you know that the indoor portions of our panda complex are kept at a cool 60 degrees Fahrenheit? The resort has two air-conditioned living rooms where guests can view the pandas. This may mean that on some days only two of the four bears are visible, while the other two may be behind the scenes of the building. The Panda Care team is easily able to care for all four bears, regardless of their location. We rotate where the bears spend their time to allow for an enriching environmental change. Because we also know pandas and their behaviors very well, our team is able to read behavioral signals that indicate whether a panda would like to spend the day in a certain space. We always do our best to listen to the needs and desires of each of the pandas so that they can all have the important element of choice in their daily routine.

As we have previously shared, over the past few weeks we have been feeding the pandas bamboo shoots, which they love, in addition to their usual daily amounts of bamboo and produce such as apples, bananas and sweet potatoes. When consuming sprouts, pandas also tend to have a lot of energy, and we’ve seen many examples of play in recent weeks. This may include running, climbing platforms, or interacting with enrichment objects. We recently saw Lun Lun playing with an enrichment item designed to hold leaf-eating biscuits inside. You might see the pandas playing with these enrichment balls, which need to be moved to keep the leaf-eating cookies moving until they fall out of a hole. This is a fun and engaging activity that requires critical thinking.

Enrichment gives animals a creative outlet while providing a stimulus that allows them to perform the same natural behaviors as their wild counterparts. All animals at Zoo Atlanta benefit from some form of enrichment every day. In the case of pandas, the Panda Care Team offers each panda an enrichment object or an enrichment activity every day. You may see us placing objects, favorite scents, boxes or other items that encourage natural behaviors such as foraging, climbing, playing and grooming.

(photo: Xi Lun)

Panda Care Team