San Diego Zoo News

A Conservation Priority: Children and Nature

Apr 17th, 2012 | By
A Conservation Priority: Children and Nature

Megan Owen, a conservation program manager for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research wrote this personal and touching post about conservation. A Conservation Priority: Children and Nature. Back in 2000, I had the opportunity to take my family with me on a three-month research trip to the Wolong Giant Panda Center. At the
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Wild Food vs. Zoo Food

Apr 2nd, 2012 | By
Wild Food vs. Zoo Food

Jennifer Parsons, associate nutritionist for San Diego Zoo, wrote the following article about panda food in the wild and in zoos: In the wild, one to five percent of a giant panda’s diet is non-bamboo food items. This may include wild fruits or berries, scavenged meat, and opportunistically caught small mammals. So why don’t we
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Panda-Palooza! 2012 Held in San Diego

Apr 2nd, 2012 | By
Panda-Palooza! 2012 Held in San Diego

For the third year in a row, a group of people who share their love and passion for giant pandas gathered in San Diego for their annual convention. This year’s event, called Panda-Palooza!, took place on March 24 and 25, 2012. Here is a report by Velia Watts, one of the organisators of Panda-Palooza: The
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Breeding Time @ San Diego Zoo

Mar 19th, 2012 | By
Breeding Time @ San Diego Zoo

The 2012 panda breeding season has started at the San Diego Zoo. Read this post by Suzanne Hall, a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. We’ve had some wild weather here in Southern California for the past few days. Saturday night, a blustery storm passed through. Blowing winds, downpours
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Hua Mei Café

Feb 26th, 2012 | By
Hua Mei Café

The San Diego Zoo has renamed it’s food shop near Panda Trek ‘Hua Mei Café’. It is a nice tribute to the United States’ first surviving panda cub. Hua Mei, daughter of Bai Yun & Shi Shi, was born on August 21, 1999 at the San Diego Zoo. She moved to her parents native country
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What is Yun Zi doing?

Feb 25th, 2012 | By
What is Yun Zi doing?

As of January 24, 2012, giant panda Yun Zi has moved from the main viewing exhibits and is currently living in the bedroom suites at the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Trek. He is enjoying his extended vacation and being around his keepers, who dote on him all day. Yun Zi is being pampered daily with
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The Nose Knows: The Perceptual World of the Giant Panda

Feb 23rd, 2012 | By
The Nose Knows: The Perceptual World of the Giant Panda

A male panda sits, hour upon hour, lazily grabbing bamboo stems, pulling them to his mouth, where powerful jaws and crushing teeth make short work of it. A few hours later, it comes out the other end, changed little by the passage through his intestines. After a few days of this routine, intermittently sleeping and
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San Diego Zoo’s Barbara Durrant visits Taipei Zoo

Dec 15th, 2011 | By
San Diego Zoo’s Barbara Durrant visits Taipei Zoo

San Diego Zoo’s director of reproductive physiology, Barbara Durrant, wrote this blog post about her visit to Taipei Zoo and it’s 2nd Cross-Strait Symposium: I was fortunate to be invited to participate in a workshop for the veterinary and curatorial staff at the Taipei Zoo and to give a talk on giant panda conservation at
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Yun Zi’s snow day

Dec 9th, 2011 | By
Yun Zi’s snow day

It’s been rather cold lately in San Diego. Even those of us who have lived in the cold before weren’t ready for this snap…and then, it got even colder. In fact, it snowed! But just at the panda exhibit in the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Trek. What better way to get ready for our 3rd
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Yun Zi: Burst of Energy

Dec 1st, 2011 | By
Yun Zi: Burst of Energy

Anastasia Horning, a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo, wrote the following blog post about Yun Zi’s recent Burst of Energy: Through the years that I’ve narrated at the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Research Station, I have had the pleasure of watching three panda cubs grow from birth to their departure to China.
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