Mei Lun & Mei Huan become more playful
Mei Lun & Mei Huan are becoming more playful.
Here are 2 lovely posts by Zoo Atlanta’s panda keepers:
Shauna D. – October 31, 2014:
I have noticed lately that the girls have spent a lot more time playing and running around than sleeping. Since they are just youngsters, it is natural for them to spend much of the day sleeping. A morning in one of the habitats is usually enough to make them pass out on the structure for the remainder of the day. The last few days, however, both Mei Lun and Mei Huan have had a lot of energy and have been ready to exert it. We will usually put Lun Lun and the cubs out in one of the habitats until their 1:30 feeding, and then we bring them all into a dayroom for the rest of the day. We do this because the cubs can be so unpredictable when it comes to shifting. If one of them is asleep, it could be a very long time until we can get that cub up and ready to make the trek onto the exhibit or off exhibit. In fact, just the other day, you may have noticed that only Lun Lun and Mei Huan were out in Habitat Two. This is because Mei Lun fell asleep in one of the dens, and we just couldn’t keep her awake long enough to shift out with mom and sister. Since the cubs are not quite comfortable in the habitats, they are very active, spending much of their time exploring or following Lun around. Just the other day, I watched Mei Lun follow Lun around all morning, and I made a comment to my fellow keeper that as soon as we brought them in, Mei Lun was going to crash. I was wrong. Both cubs were very active chasing each other and jumping from the structure to the hammock. It was quite entertaining to watch. You can tell that the girls are getting a bit older and are ready to spend more time playing and eating bamboo.
Jen W. – November 5, 2014:
On Tuesday, everyone might have caught a fun little interaction between one Mei Huan and one Yang Yang. There is a large panel that separates both outdoor habitats. This panel has an outer solid metal door, and a second mesh panel on the other side. We use this area for training demonstrations; the solid panel can be opened revealing the mesh panel. Where the locking mechanism is located, there is a small opening where two panda noses could have the opportunity to sniff each other out. And that’s exactly what happened between daughter and Dad. Both seemed to really enjoy checking each other out through this tiny opening, with Mei Huan getting all hyper and Yang Yang trying to self-anoint himself with her smell. We caught the action on PandaCam, so hopefully you were able to tune in and watch the entertaining interaction as well! Once the twins are weaned from Mom, we will eventually have the option to “howdy” Yang and his daughters as we have done in the past with all of our sub-adults and adults. We do this because in the wild, pandas do occasionally cross paths, but mostly because Yang Yang really seems to enjoy having a panda buddy he can see, but can’t physically get to. If the girls don’t seem to enjoy the interaction with Dad, it’ll stop… but I highly doubt that’ll be the case!
