Speaker 1: Ruby.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Rich Swartz.
Speaker 1: What is this world?
Speaker 3: A Marco went and this this is Amazing Wildlife where
Speaker 3: we explore stories of wildlife from around the world and
Speaker 3: uncovered fascinating animal facts. This podcast is brought to you
Speaker 3: in partnership with iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo
Speaker 3: Wildlife Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees this
Speaker 3: beautiful place, the San Diego.
Speaker 2: Zoo and the Safari Park.
Speaker 1: What a lovely little spot we're at, right.
Speaker 3: We are, we are, and it's perfect, I think for
Speaker 3: this topic because they're.
Speaker 2: Just down the way from us. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Are you referring to a large black and white mammals?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are a bear.
Speaker 1: Wait, I can.
Speaker 4: Like you said, we're at the San Diego Zo We're
Speaker 4: right below one of my favorite spots for a canyon.
Speaker 4: Back the way, we got tom I right there is
Speaker 4: Andy and bear to our left we got sun bear
Speaker 4: going on, really unique type of mammal, some of my favorites.
Speaker 1: But to your point, we're talking about the giant pandas.
Speaker 3: Right we are, we are getting an update if you will,
Speaker 3: because about this time, almost this time last year when
Speaker 3: this episode comes out. We were announcing Pantas were on
Speaker 3: the way. We're getting ready to show them.
Speaker 2: That Panda Ridge was being redone.
Speaker 3: So much activity and such a short amount of time
Speaker 3: to get everything ready for these two awesome bears.
Speaker 4: Oh, I know, And we actually we're talking before like
Speaker 4: maybe about a month from when this episode drops.
Speaker 1: It's going to be officially California.
Speaker 3: Panaday August eighth, August eight, that was declared basically when
Speaker 3: we opened Panda Ridge, officially that that was California Panaday
Speaker 3: August eighth, and the very first anniversary of that is
Speaker 3: coming up. So yeah, we want people to know it's
Speaker 3: a very special day. We're gonna do some really cool
Speaker 3: things for it. So keep listening and watching to find
Speaker 3: out what's going on. Check out the Zoos social media.
Speaker 3: They'll be posting a lot about it as well. But
Speaker 3: I think really people are listening right now not to
Speaker 3: hear about what we're doing for Panaday. They want to
Speaker 3: about the giant pandas.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a little bit right, friend, and so
Speaker 4: I think we need to update everyone, including you and
Speaker 4: I what's going.
Speaker 2: On with Panda. Well, then let's ask Jessica our guests.
Speaker 5: Good morning, guys. Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: Thank you for hanging out with us, maybe to share
Speaker 4: all these interesting things we love.
Speaker 5: Talking about pandas, Like I spent all day talking about.
Speaker 3: Oh, we don't have all day. We will fill as
Speaker 3: much time as we need to. First of all, Jessica,
Speaker 3: introduce yourself to our audience. What exactly is your title?
Speaker 3: What do you do here at the San Diego Zoo?
Speaker 3: And no, why do you know so much about pandama?
Speaker 5: Yeah, my name is Jessica. I'm a senior wildlife care
Speaker 5: specialist here at the San Diego Zoo. I've been with
Speaker 5: the San Diego Zoo for about six and a half
Speaker 5: years now. I have been working with the giant pandas
Speaker 5: since before they came. So I got to go to
Speaker 5: China and start working with Yunschwan and Singbao while they
Speaker 5: were still in China, I got to work with their
Speaker 5: care specialists there, start to teach them a few commands
Speaker 5: in English, a few words in English, learn their personalities,
Speaker 5: and then that helped have a really smooth transition for
Speaker 5: them to come over here. So they had the same
Speaker 5: care team. They already knew my face, my voice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're sent Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: So then when they came here, I continue to work
Speaker 5: with the giant panda, so I've been working with them
Speaker 5: for over a year now.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's cool.
Speaker 4: I'm glad he talked about going to China and working
Speaker 4: with the team there because in the previous PAN episode
Speaker 4: it was with Nicky Boy, can you remember, right, she
Speaker 4: was mentioning a lot of that as well, and she
Speaker 4: and I, all of us here are very behavior oriented people,
Speaker 4: you know, So I was really stoked that you brought
Speaker 4: that up because it's definitely something I want to ask
Speaker 4: you sort of update to some of the behaviors that
Speaker 4: Nikki was saying prior that you guys have been working on.
Speaker 4: But I think though, guys, you know, before we get started,
Speaker 4: because maybe people forgot, like, who are the two giant
Speaker 4: pans we have here at Panda Ridge at the zoo?
Speaker 1: Can you talk about it?
Speaker 5: We have two wonderful giant pandas obviously that we brought
Speaker 5: a male and a female. So we have Yun Schwan.
Speaker 5: He's our male. Almost his birthday, he's about to turn six.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh so he's a five year old male.
Speaker 5: And then Sing Bao is our female. She's going to
Speaker 5: turn five soon. Giant Pandas are born around the same
Speaker 5: time every year, so their birthdays, of course are around
Speaker 5: the same time. So they're both about to turn five
Speaker 5: and six. This will be their second celebrated birthday here
Speaker 5: at the San Diego too. So they have settled in
Speaker 5: really really well, having been here almost a year now.
Speaker 5: They have been in both habitats. Both of them have
Speaker 5: been in each habitat for a little bit of time,
Speaker 5: and they really settled into San Diego. So they're loving
Speaker 5: this San Diego love SOCOW lifestyle. Okay, it is very
Speaker 5: up the alley for giant panda. They love that SOCOW lifestyle.
Speaker 3: Okay. So I think it's fairer than share with our
Speaker 3: audience because I think in general people have that Southern
Speaker 3: California San Diego lifestyles, laid back, relax, you know, hanging
Speaker 3: on the beach, just pretty chill, and you're sam, pandas
Speaker 3: fit that really well?
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 3: Why do panda fit our lifestyle here in San Diego
Speaker 3: so well?
Speaker 5: Giant Pandas fit that SOCOW lifestyle really well because they
Speaker 5: do spend most of their time just eating and sleeping.
Speaker 4: So they yeah, I mean, you were laughing about it before,
Speaker 4: you know, but we had a specific reason why, right,
Speaker 4: can you hint at it? Because their carnivore But I
Speaker 4: was really fascinating you were talking about there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so giant pandas are true bears, so they do
Speaker 5: have carnivore digestive systems. They have those canines, those sharp teeth,
Speaker 5: those sharp claws, true carnivore digestive systems. But they only
Speaker 5: eat bamboo. Of what they eat is sampoo anyway, so
Speaker 5: they don't get a lot of nutrients out of the
Speaker 5: food that they eat. So they have to consume such
Speaker 5: a high volume of food to be able to get
Speaker 5: enough nutrients. And then they have to sleep a lot
Speaker 5: so while their body processes all that. So most of
Speaker 5: what a giant panda does is eating and sleeping. They'll
Speaker 5: wake up, eat until they're full, and then sleep for
Speaker 5: three to four hours and do that kind of on
Speaker 5: repeat for twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 4: It's crazy, Amanda, Actually she's behind the camera right after,
Speaker 4: you don't know, but she was asking prior to because
Speaker 4: you know, some animals have like a hind gut kind
Speaker 4: of fermentation process, you know, but it's not like that
Speaker 4: for panas. You're basically saying, you know, yeah, I'm a carnivore,
Speaker 4: but I'm eating all this planet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I just got to keep on eating and
Speaker 1: eating exactly.
Speaker 5: So they eat tons of food every day. We feed
Speaker 5: them more food than they could ever possibly eat. The
Speaker 5: day they get a schmorcus spoored here, so they have
Speaker 5: their pick of what they want. You don't want to
Speaker 5: eat the same thing for every single meal, so we
Speaker 5: give them a ton of variety every single day. We
Speaker 5: give close to eighty to one hundred pounds of bamboo
Speaker 5: every single day, and then we don't all eat the
Speaker 5: same amount of food every day either, So giant pandas
Speaker 5: are just like that. Some days they'll eat forty pounds
Speaker 5: of food. Sometimes they'll eat close to that eighty pounds
Speaker 5: in a day, But it comes out just like it
Speaker 5: goes in, so they don't really digest it. They don't
Speaker 5: have that high bet that ruminants have to be able
Speaker 5: to break that down and really absorb all of the
Speaker 5: nutrients that come out of that. So they're really going
Speaker 5: to eat as much as they can and then sleep
Speaker 5: while their body processes as much of that as it
Speaker 5: can to get as much nutrients out of it. As possible,
Speaker 5: but they don't eat what their body is designed to
Speaker 5: eat as a large carnivore.
Speaker 2: Does anybody knows there been any research.
Speaker 3: Why would a species like the panda bear, which is
Speaker 3: the teeth of a carnivore, the digestive of the carnivore
Speaker 3: go through the process of and obviously for a very
Speaker 3: long time now, being such a high herbivore diet animal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a really good question. Actually, they have adapted
Speaker 5: to the most readily available resource, so they have no
Speaker 5: natural predators. So a giant panda has no need to
Speaker 5: use all those carnivore adaptations that they have, so they
Speaker 5: are true bear, so they have those teeth in those claws,
Speaker 5: but with no natural predators, they have adapted to be
Speaker 5: able to eat what is most readily available, which is bamboo,
Speaker 5: so it's everywhere. They don't have to chase it. Their
Speaker 5: food's not going to run away, so they have adapted
Speaker 5: to be able to process bamboo and use that as
Speaker 5: their natural food resource. And then because they have no
Speaker 5: natural predators, they can spend that extra time sleeping so
Speaker 5: that their body can process that. They are a solitary species,
Speaker 5: so they do still have those carnivore adaptations to be
Speaker 5: able to defend their territory if then when they need to,
Speaker 5: but they do a really good job of avoiding that
Speaker 5: at all costs. They would much rather not have to
Speaker 5: use any of those adaptations. They really just yeah, they
Speaker 5: want to save as much energy as possible, so they
Speaker 5: just want to eat bamboo and sleep. So they do
Speaker 5: a good job of marking their territory.
Speaker 1: They use to watch.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they use their scent and things like that to
Speaker 5: make sure that they kind of mark off their own
Speaker 5: zones and they avoid each other.
Speaker 3: I think it's fascinating that the digestive system hasn't really
Speaker 3: changed much to work with that environment, to work with
Speaker 3: what's readily available to consume the bamboo.
Speaker 2: But there's other adaptations.
Speaker 3: This is that other bears don't have, so they can
Speaker 3: hold the bamboo.
Speaker 4: No totally, because I called it a thumb, but then
Speaker 4: you elaborated a little more.
Speaker 1: They sort of called the pseudo thumb for a giant pan.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So when you watch giant hand to eat, it's
Speaker 5: the cutest thing ever. I could watch them eat all day.
Speaker 5: So it actually looks like they're holding and gripping the bamboo,
Speaker 5: which allows them to maneuver it, to strip the coating
Speaker 5: off of it, to eat the different pieces of the plant,
Speaker 5: because they eat all different parts of the plant. But
Speaker 5: it looks like a thumb that they're gripping with, but
Speaker 5: it's actually what we call a pseudo thumb. It's an
Speaker 5: elongated wristbone that acts as a opposable thumb so that
Speaker 5: they can manipulate that bamboo in order to process and
Speaker 5: man for all the different parts of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so kids, this is what you need to do.
Speaker 3: Get a ruler and somehow I don't use tapecausey're really
Speaker 3: hurt coming off, but maybe like get a shoelace to
Speaker 3: strap the ruler to your forearm so it sticks out
Speaker 3: past your hand a little bit and then cut your
Speaker 3: hand and try and grab things, because that's really what
Speaker 3: it is. And they don't have a thumb like we have,
Speaker 3: so it's hand, yeah, to kind of grab and hold on.
Speaker 3: But they've obviously done such a great job because I've
Speaker 3: seen it too.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it looks like.
Speaker 5: They're very adept at using those adaptations.
Speaker 3: Do you remember in our bamboo episode from last year
Speaker 3: without him, he was saying that it's the strongest fiber
Speaker 3: out how powerful they have to be. So that's the
Speaker 3: other adaptation pandas have is this incredibly powerful bite and
Speaker 3: we can.
Speaker 2: Look at it.
Speaker 3: So if you're here at the zoo, look at the
Speaker 3: sun bears, or near the pandas, look at the other
Speaker 3: bears that we have. And then when you look at
Speaker 3: the panda, you see that adorable, very round face.
Speaker 2: But that's all that muscle tissue exactly.
Speaker 3: In the jaw area and on the head to crush
Speaker 3: that bamboo in a single bite. And that's another interesting adaptation.
Speaker 3: So we have the pseudo thumb, we have the incredibly large,
Speaker 3: powerful skull with all those muscles in it and the
Speaker 3: teeth and jaws, and yet still the digestive system is
Speaker 3: out of a carnivore like all these things that allows
Speaker 3: them to do what they do.
Speaker 2: But oh, by the way, you just have to eat
Speaker 2: a bunch of sleep.
Speaker 1: But it's so great to me that just the nuances
Speaker 1: of bears in general.
Speaker 4: You know, like Megan talked about the polar bear way
Speaker 4: back in the day, to remember that just a real
Speaker 4: set niche like over ninety percent of their diet or
Speaker 4: ring next seals. But I just love that ability of
Speaker 4: behavior being modified as well. I mean, we're talking about
Speaker 4: these physical adaptations, but they're also behaviorally acting a little differently.
Speaker 1: There's the asiatic black bear right, can be.
Speaker 4: Found in certain regions nearby, but behaviorally very different as well.
Speaker 1: But I really like that also.
Speaker 4: But I'm getting sidetracked because I don't want to forget
Speaker 4: to ask you because Nikki the last episode, she was
Speaker 4: talking about some of these behaviors that you guys have
Speaker 4: been working on previously for them moving here to the
Speaker 4: San Diego Zoo. Right, she had mentioned in open mouth
Speaker 4: behavior blood draws she mentioned, you guys are going to
Speaker 4: start working recast. So I don't know if you can
Speaker 4: spill the tea, but I kind of want to know
Speaker 4: haw's it's been going.
Speaker 1: It's been about a year now, Yeah, can.
Speaker 5: You Yeah, I can let you guys in on the
Speaker 5: insider information on that the behavior. Yeah, so those behaviors
Speaker 5: that we've been developing for the last year have really solidified.
Speaker 5: These guys are really intelligent bears. They learn very quickly.
Speaker 5: Pandas in general are extremely intelligent bears. Bears are extremely
Speaker 5: intelligent species. Giant pandas are no exception to that. They
Speaker 5: make it look easy. They just you know, they chill
Speaker 5: and relax. They're super duper smart. So we do have
Speaker 5: the open mouth behavior trained. We also have a recall
Speaker 5: trained that we have been working on. It's a really
Speaker 5: useful behavior to train for all of our large mammals,
Speaker 5: not just large carnivores at the San Diego Zoo. So
Speaker 5: it's basically a specialized cowbell sound, so believe it or not,
Speaker 5: there are many different cowbell sounds or not just one
Speaker 5: cow bell sound, right.
Speaker 4: And it doesn't have to be cowbell too on a
Speaker 4: point out right, it could be a lot of different
Speaker 4: sounds depending but you're using for.
Speaker 5: These ones specifically because animals have such great hearing, very
Speaker 5: signature noise, so another animal across the zoo is going
Speaker 5: to be able to hear that recall sound totally, so
Speaker 5: we want to make sure it's unique for each animal zoo.
Speaker 5: So there special goodies that they get to come in for.
Speaker 5: Is actually Kerns guava nectar. Oh well, right, doesn't love
Speaker 5: urns commercially available, but they love it.
Speaker 4: They yummy fruit to what Yeah, but I call it
Speaker 4: in Spanish, but that's super super yummy. Just in case
Speaker 4: some of the kids that are listening to because we
Speaker 4: said recall. But that's basically like a behavior if maybe
Speaker 4: I don't know, maybe a branch falls in the habitat.
Speaker 4: I mean once I had a Virginia possum actually going
Speaker 4: to the Castlory habitat.
Speaker 1: I was door. Luckily I had the recall established and
Speaker 1: Ponto came right in. It was no big deal.
Speaker 4: And to your point, we had to actually coordinate with
Speaker 4: Tiger team across the way because I didn't want to
Speaker 4: use the same sound as the Tiger's right. But that's
Speaker 4: really great that you're established that behavior for who knows
Speaker 4: what can happen out in the habit Yeah.
Speaker 5: We've actually had to use it once because a hat
Speaker 5: felons the habitat, So you know, super critical had to
Speaker 5: save that hat.
Speaker 4: I mean, when you get the right hat, I mean yeah,
Speaker 4: And I sure they appreciated it, right, Yeah, Well.
Speaker 2: I think too.
Speaker 3: It's important as a pet owner, recalls are important, you know,
Speaker 3: should there ever be an emergency situation of any sort,
Speaker 3: drastic or not, or just a hat, to have that recall,
Speaker 3: to be able to bring your animal into a safe
Speaker 3: space is so important.
Speaker 2: And I love.
Speaker 3: That that's something we incorporate here. At the San Diego Zoo,
Speaker 3: something that we used to do way back in my
Speaker 3: first years of animal training with dog training was established
Speaker 3: the recall totally. I do want to go back to
Speaker 3: something though you had mentioned, and I know Niki had
Speaker 3: mentioned in the previous panned episode we did last season,
Speaker 3: the open mouth behavior. I think Nikki touched on why
Speaker 3: that's important and why we do it, but I'd love
Speaker 3: to hear from you. Yeah, what is it that that
Speaker 3: is such an important thing for us to have with
Speaker 3: our animals here at the Sandiego Yeah, we train.
Speaker 5: A lot of behavior specifically for being able to get
Speaker 5: close eyes and examination on our animals. So the open
Speaker 5: mouth behavior allows us to inspect their teeth. They can't
Speaker 5: see a dentist every year like we can, right, so
Speaker 5: we can monitor their health very closely by training specific behaviors.
Speaker 5: Open mouth is one of those behaviors that we train.
Speaker 5: Other behaviors that we train our blood pressure reading, so
Speaker 5: we do take our pandas blood pressure believe it or not,
Speaker 5: we used to take it every single week so we
Speaker 5: can establish a baseline for their health. So they're super
Speaker 5: young bears, so at this point they're healthy individuals. We
Speaker 5: can save all of that data and information so that
Speaker 5: as they age, where if at some point they become
Speaker 5: geriatric bears in our care, we can have that young
Speaker 5: baseline blood pressure to compare to for when they're older,
Speaker 5: so we can catch any health issues really early on.
Speaker 5: Changes in blood pressure are a huge indicator of health concerns,
Speaker 5: so we do a lot of behaviors like that that
Speaker 5: allow us to monitor their health very very closely.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm care. Can you describe it? How do you
Speaker 1: take the blood pressure of a hand abase? Yeah?
Speaker 5: So it's just like a human So if you've been
Speaker 5: to the doctor, had your bloodressure, take it. Almost everybody has.
Speaker 5: It's not comfortable, right, It squeezes. You can feel your
Speaker 5: heart rate in your arm, So imagine a bear doing that.
Speaker 5: You can't explain to them why it's important for them
Speaker 5: to hold still and get their blood pressure taken, but
Speaker 5: we establish a really strong relationship through training that they
Speaker 5: are willing to sit there. They have the freedom to
Speaker 5: remove their arm and leave if they'd like to. They're
Speaker 5: not restrained. It's fully their choice to participate.
Speaker 4: Which I love that different than in the past setting
Speaker 4: a scenario a certain way, but this is them taking
Speaker 4: part of the situation having ownership in control of it, right, absolutely.
Speaker 5: So we do have a specialized sleeve we call it.
Speaker 5: It's an attachment that goes into their training area with
Speaker 5: an opening and a handle so they can put their
Speaker 5: arm through and expose their arms so that we can
Speaker 5: wrap a blood pressure cuff to their arm the exact
Speaker 5: same as a human one. It's the same exact blood
Speaker 5: pressure cuff, and then the blood pressure machine takes their reading.
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2: It's actually a lot more straightforward and.
Speaker 1: It too. Oh.
Speaker 4: Actually, well, we were talking about these behaviors you guys,
Speaker 4: I kind of want to know, like, you have a
Speaker 4: training plan, right, this is how we're going to train
Speaker 4: this blood pressure behave as an example. They're different personalities, right,
Speaker 4: so I'm kind of curious like how we're training each one,
Speaker 4: Like did one learn it faster than the other.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a really great question. So the approximations for
Speaker 5: each training behavior, we break it down. Sometimes they can
Speaker 5: skip several steps and they can just jump right through
Speaker 5: because they're super smart.
Speaker 1: They know what you want, you know exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they typically can train very very quickly. These bears
Speaker 5: are super smart. There are behaviors that we've been able
Speaker 5: to shape in one day alone, and then we sometimes
Speaker 5: you have breakdowns where if you don't train a behavior
Speaker 5: for a little while, then they kind of maybe a
Speaker 5: little reminder, a little pressure. And I would say that
Speaker 5: two bears are very different in their personalities, so they
Speaker 5: each trained behaviors at a different pace. So some things
Speaker 5: he trained really really quickly and she did it, and
Speaker 5: somethings she trained really really quickly and he didn't.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 5: Overall, though, these bears are super easy to work with.
Speaker 5: They're super smart. Both of them train very quickly. They
Speaker 5: make it easy.
Speaker 1: They're motivated, Nikki brought that out to here, Like they're
Speaker 1: very food motivated, like they want to eat, so that
Speaker 1: kind of helps they do.
Speaker 5: They love to eat. And they're very personal bears as
Speaker 5: much as they are wild animals. We never share space
Speaker 5: with them. All protective content, all protected contact. They do
Speaker 5: really enjoy that training interaction, that.
Speaker 2: Cognitive exercise, brain exercise.
Speaker 5: They really enjoy that brain exercise interaction time. So they
Speaker 5: love to train.
Speaker 3: That's cool that it's rewarding overall, like the whole process
Speaker 3: for them to rewarding, not just oh I get a
Speaker 3: reward for doing the behavior, you know, as far as
Speaker 3: food goes. Yeah, I do want to ask, so let mean, Mark,
Speaker 3: are you done with the questions? Okay, I might have
Speaker 3: more later, but trying to think like our guests, right,
Speaker 3: Like when the Pandas Furs got here, it was all
Speaker 3: timed tickets and now we've kind of shifted more to
Speaker 3: time tickets during the busy season and busy time. But
Speaker 3: otherwise you can just get in the queue and line
Speaker 3: up and see them as I'm a guest coming in
Speaker 3: to see the Pandas. Do either one of them have
Speaker 3: a favorite spot and habitat to hang out that I
Speaker 3: should be looking for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they sleep a lot, they do.
Speaker 1: That's a good one.
Speaker 5: A lot of people ask us where they're at and
Speaker 5: when they're awake, so.
Speaker 1: I want to schedule.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So, as I mentioned before that they eat for
Speaker 5: a while total fold then they sleep three to four hours.
Speaker 5: So that's not the same three to four hours every
Speaker 5: single day. So I don't know in a given day
Speaker 5: when they're going to be awaken, when they're going to
Speaker 5: be asleep. That's really up to their bodies and their
Speaker 5: digestive systems. But they do have some favorite spots. Oh yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 5: so they really like some cool, damp, dry areas, especially
Speaker 5: this time of year. So in our hillside habitat, we
Speaker 5: do have this really cool rock cave. There's some spots
Speaker 5: inside the cave that Singbao really likes to hang out
Speaker 5: in the afternoon. And there's some spots on top of
Speaker 5: the cave that both candles love whenever they're in that
Speaker 5: hillside habitat above the cave. Favorite spot.
Speaker 1: It's the cutest thing is head just rolled back there.
Speaker 1: That's spot I love. The other one, yeah, and the.
Speaker 5: Other habitat, we have this really cool bonzai shaped pine.
Speaker 5: They love the pine tree, so they can climb all
Speaker 5: the way to the top of that pine tree. During
Speaker 5: this time of year, as we're starting to warm up,
Speaker 5: they have been spending a lot more time underneath the
Speaker 5: pine tree, so they really like to go under it
Speaker 5: right now. We do have some cooling measures in that
Speaker 5: area that help them thermot regulate, so they've got some
Speaker 5: misters some airflow right there. So they do really like
Speaker 5: to hang out under the Bonzie tree this time of year.
Speaker 2: That's I love that cool, very cool, great insider information.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Guess must know exactly right. I have one more question
Speaker 1: before we wrap up it.
Speaker 3: So I've done research on this because I've had to
Speaker 3: talk about panis before, and I think I know the answer,
Speaker 3: but it's a question that does come up sometimes. I'd
Speaker 3: love to hear your insight on it, if you even
Speaker 3: because it was a theory when I read about it.
Speaker 3: We look at some animals and they blend into their
Speaker 3: environments so well, you know, you have the stripes of
Speaker 3: a tiger, you have the stripes of the zebra, the
Speaker 3: herd blends together. You have the spotted pattern of a
Speaker 3: leopard or a jaguar blending into the jungle and the
Speaker 3: depilated shadows, and the jungle you got grizzly bears at
Speaker 3: dark brown they can't blend into the four and then
Speaker 3: the Martian meadows. Really well, then you got the panda.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be a contrast across the board, strictly
Speaker 3: white here and strictly black there, and very obvious and
Speaker 3: easy to see.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that's probably how people felt when they first
Speaker 5: saw tigers. Right, they're like orange and striped. How does
Speaker 5: that blend in? That doesn't make any sense for camouflage.
Speaker 5: So the way that the temperate forests are that giant
Speaker 5: pandas are native to They're broad leafed, big canopies, very humid,
Speaker 5: very foggy, and muggy. Believe it or not, they do
Speaker 5: blend in really well. There are times where we're looking
Speaker 5: for our pan as, we do observations all throughout the
Speaker 5: day that we're like, is that the panda? Is that
Speaker 5: the panda? So those big black and white patches actually
Speaker 5: are super helpful for broad leafed shade patterns. Okay, so
Speaker 5: there are big patches of shade where that stripe just
Speaker 5: blends right in and that white blends into maybe rocks
Speaker 5: in that area, those super light gray rocks of those
Speaker 5: mountainous areas, and they actually and did pretty well.
Speaker 4: I mean it makes to me, you know, like a
Speaker 4: scarlet mccauseference, like a rainbow colored pair that people aren't
Speaker 4: familiar with that you think it wouldn't blend in. But
Speaker 4: I've been in the Jungles and Costa Rica as an example,
Speaker 4: I could barely even see them in the tree at
Speaker 4: one point to blend in so well. Other animals see
Speaker 4: different spectrums of color. You know, those herbivores in the
Speaker 4: jungles with tigers, they don't really pick up that.
Speaker 1: Ore and so yeah, right, and that's really cool.
Speaker 4: Actually, I forgot I did have one question that it's
Speaker 4: kind of a nerdy personal question, you know, but for instance,
Speaker 4: in the past, you're probably the same thing. For instance,
Speaker 4: when I was helping manage Castaway, as an example, I'd
Speaker 4: have like a favorite part of the day and it
Speaker 4: was for me, it was before gas showed up and
Speaker 4: it was just me and the castaways and the sun
Speaker 4: was filtering through the trees, and it was like my
Speaker 4: favorite part of the day. So I'm kind of curious,
Speaker 4: do you have a moment in your day that's like, man,
Speaker 4: this is my selfishly best part of my day. Yeah,
Speaker 4: tell me, do you have one of those?
Speaker 5: It probably isn't the same every single day. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: would say that I love watching them eat, watching them
Speaker 5: process bamboo amazing super strong jost length, and the way
Speaker 5: they can just crack and split and they make it
Speaker 5: look so easy. They make it, they make it look effortless,
Speaker 5: and then just they're munching away. I love to watch
Speaker 5: them eat when it's just quiet, and they really like
Speaker 5: the quiet. So these guys live in forests, are pretty solitary,
Speaker 5: so they prefer quiet, and when it's just quiet, and
Speaker 5: they're just you know, they'll like franchise and they'll get
Speaker 5: into it, and they love to eat, and they make
Speaker 5: it look easy and they make it look fun. Right,
Speaker 5: I've never eating never looked so enjoyable.
Speaker 4: I mean, I kind of get it because in the beginning,
Speaker 4: like what's the hype about giant pandas? And then it
Speaker 4: finally wants to go see and I'm like.
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, I was the same way. I worked with
Speaker 5: cats before and yeah, and I was like, well, I
Speaker 5: mean their bears, bears are cool. And then once they
Speaker 5: started working with them, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: these guys are so cool.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 5: They just eat on their belly all the foods up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, always going to be a great time and you're
Speaker 4: getting California painted eate. Perfect time to come to the
Speaker 4: zoo and celebrate Rick. You're mentioning many ways or guess
Speaker 4: can come and visit. There's an extra another experience like
Speaker 4: a morning morning tour as well online Go online, Go online,
Speaker 4: everyone look at the camera right now, go online.
Speaker 1: The book that it's always a fun time. Oh that
Speaker 1: was great. Thank you, Jessica than.
Speaker 5: So much for coming out and getting an update on
Speaker 5: the panda.
Speaker 1: Yes now, and I want to find you looking at
Speaker 1: those bears bunch in away.
Speaker 2: Thanks again, thank you, that was really great.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing panda crunch in my ear now.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny you mentioned that the pandas make it
Speaker 3: look so easy, and I remember early on in my
Speaker 3: career here at the sin it goes on my area
Speaker 3: that I was taking care of over two red pandas,
Speaker 3: and the bamboo they would get was usually the stem
Speaker 3: was no bigger round than your thumb, and I remember
Speaker 3: once I was clearing that out, it wouldn't fit into
Speaker 3: the receptacle, so I was trying to break it and
Speaker 3: like you couldn't.
Speaker 2: Do it, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: And then I come down and watch the giant pans
Speaker 3: with these ginormous pieces of bamboo away like it's a carrot, and.
Speaker 1: I was just like, how was that possible?
Speaker 4: Wild Pa, I'm just smiling just because their job is
Speaker 4: so awesome. And the last time we were talking giraffe
Speaker 4: and giraffes around, they were learning about giants and oh,
Speaker 4: the next one, we're gonna hint a little bit of
Speaker 4: a fun behavior with maybe a jaguar.
Speaker 3: Well, so there is an article that will be featured
Speaker 3: in the journal. When I saw that in the lineup
Speaker 3: of things, we have to find out more about this.
Speaker 3: So it's about certain behaviors that were found and understood.
Speaker 3: Then here at the San Diego Zoo, about the jaguar
Speaker 3: and another species.
Speaker 2: But I don't want to give away too much.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, and we're gonna hang out at the ze Stelle.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, I'm stay here. Sounds good to me, Fred,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, guys, and while Marco Wentz.
Speaker 2: And I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening and for watching.
Speaker 3: For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Speaker 3: Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to sdzw a dot org.
Speaker 3: Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers
Speaker 3: are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers
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