Bai Yun returns to San Diego Zoo's main exhibit
If you have visited the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Trek lately, you’ve noticed that we have shifted our pandas around. Gao Gao is now behind the scenes enjoying the sweet taste of his bamboo bread during his recovery from his medical procedure, and Bai Yun is back in the main exhibit. I am really happy to be watching Bai Yun again. She is so majestic looking, and guests say that she is one of our most photogenic pandas because you can usually see the whites of her eyes against her black eye spots.
The beautiful Bai Yun has not taken much notice of Yun Zi, her two-year-old son who is in the adjacent exhibit, since she moved back to the main exhibit. Bai Yun goes about her day searching for treats hidden around her exhibit, eating her bamboo, and resting her head on her favorite rock “pillow.” Giant panda females only raise their young until they are about 18 months old, and then the cub gains independence. In the wild, if the cub tries to stay with the mother bear too long, he might get chased away. Since Bai Yun would not have the option of chasing her cub away at the Zoo, the juvenile panda goes through a more gradual weaning process. The mother bear and youngster spend less and less time with each other until they gain full independence from one another.
Yun Zi has been an independent young panda so far and spends his days playing, turning somersaults, eating his bamboo, and napping after a meal, just like his mom. After the initial weaning, it was important that the pandas didn’t see or smell one another for quite some time, but currently they don’t seem to be taking notice of each other. I would have to say that Yun Zi took more notice of the takins moving near the pandas than of his mom.
Michelle Penick (Panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo)
