Back from Vienna, Off to China
Monday, 21 March 2011 09:03
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Hi everyone,
Well I have been back at it for the around two weeks now and straight back into it! I have to say it is nice to see my black and white friends again.
I came into the zoo a few days before I officially started back at work with Eveline Dungl, the Panda Curator from Zoo Vienna or Tiergarten Schönbrunn. After my wonderful time over at Zoo Vienna a few weeks earlier it was my chance to show her around Adelaide and Monarto Zoo.
I was able to show her around our panda building and she was able to meet Wang Wang and Fu Ni in person. They, of course, charmed her with their wonderful personalities and she seemed to think they were lovely (I may be very biased on this but tend to agree with her!). She was able to meet some of the other keeping staff and we showed her around our facilities. She was very impressed by the amount of space and design of the areas for them and commented on how nice everything looked.
We spoke a lot about the breeding requirements for Wang Wang and Fu Ni and Eveline was able to provide us with some useful tips and ideas of ways that we could look at improving our already great set up.
As for the pandas, well, they seemed happy to see me....Wang Wang more than Fu Ni it would seem though...at least on the first day I saw them! Fu Ni seemed a bit annoyed or distant at first and then the keepers informed me that she was showing signs of hormonal fluctuations. Samples were taken and it did show us that there was a slight increase in her oestrogen levels. This was in no way a full oestrus cycle however and was nothing compared to the levels that she showed in October last year.
The interesting thing about this is that the breeding season of Giant Pandas in China is around April/May, where for the southern hemisphere it is more likely to be around September/October. So for Fu Ni she seems like she may be still settling into the southern hemisphere with her hormone levels!
The next interesting thing is that I am about to head over to China again for this year's breeding season! Jason, the assistant curator of Carnivores and myself will be heading off most likely in early April for a couple of weeks. Jason came with me on my last trip to China, when we went to pick up Wang Wang and Fu Ni.
We are both extremely excited about our trip. We will be going there to undertake training of what behaviours occur when a female is ready to mate and how to introduce males and females safely for matings. This information is of course vital for us to learn as it will increase our chances on having a successful mating here at Adelaide Zoo in the future.
I will of course write to all of you when I am over there!
Until next time,
Simone
Senior Panda Keeper, Adelaide Zoo
