Cub Confidential
Here are Zoo Atlanta’s panda twins latest ‘Cub Confidential’ updates:
Cub Confidential August 29, 2013:
Curator of Mammals Rebecca Snyder, PhD, shares a behind-the-scenes look at the cubs’ next milestone – the eruption of their first baby teeth!“It’s extremely cute when we see the cubs yawn and stretch inside the incubators. It also gives us the opportunity to look inside their mouths. We can see that their incisors are close to erupting. They are visible just beneath the surface of the gums. We noted during an exam of our first cub, Mei Lan, that his incisors were at the gum line when he was 50 days old, and his teeth were erupting at 77 days old. Giant panda cubs’ teeth usually start to erupt at around 75 days, but that can vary quite a bit. Since we examine the twins closely daily, we will be able to more closely pinpoint the day the first teeth erupt. But, It will be a long time before those teeth are ready to take on bamboo! Young cubs manipulate and taste bamboo, but giant pandas do not start to ingest a significant amount of bamboo until they are 13 to 14 months old.”
Wow, they won’t be eating bamboo for a while! But, we love watching them nurse with mom. We’re excited for Lun Lun to care for both of her cubs at that same time. Many of our subscribers have asked questions about this introduction, and we’re listening! Rebecca explains:
“ I don’t see this as an introduction, because Lun Lun has been caring for both cubs since they were born. When both cubs are able to walk well, we will put both of them in the nest box while Lun Lun is in one of the adjacent enclosures. She will come back to find two cubs instead of one. I don’t think this will result in a noticeable reaction on her part. I think her transition from caring for one cub at a time to two will be seamless. She will nurse, groom and play with both of them.”
Cub Confidential August 27, 2013:
We’ve had an exciting past few days in the giant panda building, from a national appearance on Good Morning America to Lun Lun’s sweet 16! We caught up with a few of the folks in the giant panda building for an update.
Check out that fuzzy hair!Ready for their close-ups …
Dr. Hayley Murphy shared an update about Friday morning’s appearance on Good Morning America:
“Never a dull moment in the giant panda building! The Good Morning America crew were here at the break of dawn on Friday to film a live segment in the nursery to use to promote the longer piece we filmed Thursday. Originally, they said they would film live at 8 a.m., so I was a little taken aback , when I arrived at 7 a.m. to take Deng home and start my shift, that they really wanted to film at 7:20 a.m.! Luckily, they were great to work with, and we settled in quickly to do what needed to be done!
The cubs are doing very well. We had an interesting kink in our system after Good Morning America left Friday, though. Our system for keeping track of which cub is where has thus far been the cubs’ accompanying veterinary charts. Friday morning, though, the power got temporarily switched off to accommodate resetting of some alarm panels. This caused the incubator alarms to go off in one unit, and it was during a cub swap so we had both cubs out. I had just weighed A and we ended up putting both cubs into one incubator so we could reset the other one. Fortunately everything turned out just fine.
Cub A had gained so much weight at the first swap of my shift (gained 78.8 grams to weigh 1,536.5 grams) that I almost could have mistaken him for his brother. I re-weighed them both to make sure the scale was accurate. Then I put them side by side with my hand on the cub I had weighed as Cub A, and sure enough, he had Cub A’s rougher coat and narrower band on his back!”
Friday was an exciting day for pandas, period. We congratulate our friends at Smithsonian’s National Zoo on the birth of a cub in Washington, D.C. This is outstanding news for the giant panda programs in the U.S.!
Panda Keeper Heather Roberts (above) has worked with our black-and-white bears for quite some time, but this photo suggests that the excitement of cubs never really wears off!
Cub Confidential August 22, 2013:
Dr. Sam Rivera, Associate Veterinarian, is extremely grateful for all the hard work from the Zoo Atlanta staff since the twins’ birth. He wanted to send a special thank you out through Cub Confidential:
“Many of you have heard of the outstanding job our Chinese colleague, Deng Tao, nursery keepers and veterinary staff has done caring for the cubs. But the job of caring for the cubs goes beyond this group. Zoo Atlanta’s staff has been extremely helpful in providing aid where needed and graciously working around the veterinarians’ schedule. Furthermore, the other panda keepers are doing an outstanding job taking care of our three other pandas while restricted to only half of the building. The other half is set up as the nursery and Lun Lun’s dens.
Special thanks go to our group of dedicated friends that have made significant contributions to our efforts. Through our website’s “wish list,” friends from across the country have made invaluable contributions through the purchase of equipment for the nursery. These donations are of great help, especially when caring for two cubs.”
Cub Confidential August 20, 2013:
What’s in our bedding department?You’ll often see Lun Lun resting in the nest box with a cub, but what’s the material in there? Dr. Rebecca Snyder gives Cub Confidential subscribers behind-the-scenes insights on the mystery material:
“The bedding we use in the nest box is grass hay. We’ve found that hay works best, and Lun Lun is comfortable with it. When she had her first cub, Mei Lan, we only used grass hay bedding, and it worked well. It’s all we’ve used since.
Some giant pandas shred bamboo to make their own bedding or nests. Lun Lun didn’t do much of that until this year, when we saw her make some large bamboo nests. Our colleagues from Chengdu are concerned about allowing a mother to have a bamboo nest, because there could be sharp branches in the nest which could potentially harm a newborn. It’s a small risk, but not one they’re willing to take. We’ve followed suit and removed the bamboo from the nest box.”
Thanks, Rebecca! Lun Lun and the cubs always look so comfy in the grass hay!
(And the incubator looks pretty comfy, too.)Dr. Sam checks in
Our tireless Associated Veterinarian, Dr. Sam Rivera, popped in to give us the scoop on measuring the cubs:
“Now that the giant panda cubs are almost 3 pounds and better able to regulate their body temperatures, we are monitoring their growth by taking specific body measurements outside the incubator weekly. In addition to the body weight, we measure total body length, tail length, neck, chest, and abdomen girth, feet length, and forearm and hind leg length, among a few others. These measurements allow us to monitor normal growth and development and also to compare their development to their brothers (Mei Lan, Xi Lan and Po) and other cubs elsewhere. As you can imagine, it is a bit tricky to hold the cubs still in order to get accurate measurements. Now that Cub A’s eyes are open and he’s more active, he is certainly making our job a bit more challenging.”
But come on, Dr. Sam, is that really a bad challenge to have? We’re enjoying the updates!
All together now: AWWW ….
Don’t forget to check out our all-new behind-the-scenes Giant Panda Wild Encounters, starting soon at Zoo Atlanta! Head on over to zooatlanta.org to check them out!
Cub Confidential August 15, 2013:
While the boys might have been born only two minutes apart, they are complete opposites! Jen Webb, Keeper I, has been keeping note of their individual personalities:
“The cubs’ personalities become more distinct each and every day, and it’s a true joy to watch. Cub A, the firstborn and smaller of the two, is definitely the needy one. He’s always fussy about something and always has an opinion to share about anything that happens in his little world. Cub A also likes to sleep more than eat during the night, which can be a little frustrating as we want him to grow big and strong.
His younger, but bigger, brother is pretty mellow and is always willing to eat. He’s fairly relaxed about most things; however, when he gets upset he does not hold back on volume. Out of the blue, and seemingly for no apparent reason, he will squawk loudly and then go right back to sleep. Or he’ll squawk loudly when we have to pick him up to check his temperature in the incubator, but then a second later he’s perfectly calm and relaxed. I think he just likes to remind everyone that he’s not to be forgotten – as if we could ever forget the ’unexpected’ one!”
Source: Zoo Atlanta
