Hi Macdoum~good to see you, but sorry you are having health issues ~take good care of yourself~I hope pandalovers continue to come to Po's thread as they are able, like you bringing Carly's wonderful link of Mei Lan {one from her below}~I check Yunzi's cam once in awhile, but don't seem to have the time to catch him

& another

Panda Cub Updates

Monday, May 30
A few days ago one of the other keepers, Katie, made some frozen popsicle treats for the pandas. She froze a piece of sugarcane (the *ultimate* treat as far as a panda is concerned) in water. Once the water froze, we placed the frozen treats out for all the bears. Xi Lan initially ignored his but eventually came back to it and worked his amazing jaw muscles on the ice to break it apart to get to the piece of sugarcane. It was fun to watch him manipulate the ice, licking it, chewing on it, trying everything to get that piece of sugarcane out! Yang Yang - in typical Yang Yang fashion - merely kicked his frozen treat into a patch of sun in Dayroom 2 and waited until the ice had melted. Lun Lun also ignored her treat in the beginning, but it wasn't long before Po found it! He didn't know what to make of this new thing and I think it might have been his first interaction with ice! We had it perched on the structure in Dayroom 1 and watched as he sniffed it and eventually pawed it onto the floor. Everything Po finds that he wants to explore and chew on he attempts to bring with him to the top of the structure to his favorite spot and this was no exception. He tried and tried to wrestle the slippery treat back up the structure but eventually gave up. Later on when we were cleaning the dayroom we found no evidence of the popsicle treat so we assume Lun Lun found it and devoured it!
Jen Webb
Keeper I, Carnivores

Friday, May 27
Kate and I have had many questions from visitors about the maternal training we have done with Lun Lun since Kate wrote an update about it a few weeks ago. I will try to address some of those questions in my update today. We started working with Lun Lun to bring in her cubs once Mei Lan was mobile and going out on exhibit with her. It was a difficult behavior to train because we had to “capture” the behavior, meaning, we had to wait for Lun Lun to do something close to what we wanted and reward her for that. Once that occurred, we could then “shape” the behavior, which means, we would reward progressive steps towards the desired behavior until she was doing exactly what we wanted her to do. It took a long time, but eventually, she started taking Mei Lan with her when she shifted inside. Once Xi Lan was out and about with Lun Lun, we reintroduced the behavior. Lun Lun remembered it and perfected her technique by calling Xi Lan first and if he did not respond, she would go and get him. While Xi Lan was small, Lun Lun became very reliable with this behavior. With Po, the behavior has progressed even further. Lun Lun now anticipates that we will want her to bring Po inside with her, so she often does not want him to climb up on the structure to sleep when it is getting close to time for us to feed her. So, they will play the game on the structure where she pulls him down and he climbs back up repeatedly. Poor Po! Lun Lun is too smart for her own good sometimes! However, as Kate said, this behavior is very helpful for us until Po is shifting reliably on his own.
Heather Baker Roberts
Carnivore Keeper II

& Lan & Po from yesterday

Po

after 16 minutes of following & they cut to Yang napping




:movie: 6/1/11~Po Following Lun..~2.51 min. < Video Link

..first thing this morning. He followed her around the room for over 15 minutes ~ and then it cut to Yang sleeping on the scales. They got quite a work-out:blink:~he may be a walker like Lun, with little stops to scent etc.



:movie: 6/1/11~Po Stops to Smell the Roses~2.56 min. < Video Link

Part 2 of their walking yesterday~Po stops to pause, but Lun keeps walking.

Panda Cub Updates

Wednesday, June 1
Watch out Lun Lun, there is a biscuit thief in town. Po has discovered Lun Lun’s leafeater biscuits and loves to steal some of Lun Lun’s serving. We have noticed that if we toss a few in the hammock while he is sleeping in the tree, he will wake up and climb down to find and eat them. He has gotten very good at consuming them; he sits back like an adult bear and holds the biscuit in his pseudo-thumb and slow snacks on it till it is gone. Then he is off to find the next biscuit.
Kate Roca
Carnivore Keeper III

Hi Queenie

Here's a scap of the little biscuit thief, lol!!



...and a short Flickr video on Po eating a biscuit with great close-ups!

VIDEO LINK
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandalover ... hotostream