LEISURELY
MEALS
Though the public will be able
to view all four pandas, don’t
expect to witness any father-cub
bonding moments — Da Mao has
his enclosure all to himself, which
is exactly how he likes it. Adult
pandas are solitary animals, and
wild male pandas only come into contact with females
when they are ready to breed.
Parenting is left up to the mother, and wild cubs would
normally separate from their mother between two and
three years of age. Baird says the cubs will turn three in
October and will likely be separated from Er Shun at that
time — they will stay with their mother a bit longer than
normal because of the upheaval of moving from Toronto to
Calgary.
“For this summer, because they are all in a new space and
climate, it is best for the pandas to all stay together for a
bit,” Baird says. The twins will journey to their ancestral
homeland of China in 2019, while the adults remain in
Calgary until 2023.
Separating Er Shun and the cubs into different enclosures
will also help Er Shun’s body prepare itself for another
possible pregnancy. Giant panda females are only ready to
breed for two or three days out of the year, in spring. This
year wasn’t a good time since Er Shun had just moved to
Calgary and still had her cubs, but caretakers will monitor
her to see if she’s ready to conceive again next year.
Kim Rishel, Calgary Zoo’s project manager, was involved
in designing and building the pandas’ exhibit, called Panda
Passage, from the ground up. She says the project involved
a lot of special knowledge about pandas and their needs.
“Pandas are special,” Rishel says. “I never expected to have
to learn so much about animals in order to build a project.
That was definitely a change because obviously (the
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pandas) can’t speak for
themselves.”
Rishel says special consideration
had to be given to things like
their sensitivity to sound, so they
wouldn’t be disturbed by loud
or sudden noises from building
equipment, and they had to
create a space that would enable
caretakers to store large volumes
of fresh bamboo at the proper temperature and humidity.
The project team travelled to Toronto Zoo to learn what
worked and what didn’t work there, and came up with a
vision of bringing the outside
indoors.
“As far as the interior and
exterior exhibits, I would say
they’re quite different from
Toronto,” Rishel says. “Very,
very lush, inside especially.
We want you to feel like
you’re fully immersed and
to feel like you’re in the
environment.”
The building project team
weren’t the only ones
who had some surprising
learning moments.
Baird says that one
thing the caretakers
realized is that pandas
take naptime very
seriously. After they eat, it’s time to
sleep — regardless of what anyone else may want.
“When a panda is sleeping it is very difficult to wake them
up,” Baird says. “If we want a panda in one space, we
now know that if we feed, they will then sleep for about
two hours before we can move them to another space or
habitat.”
Jia Yueyue, the female cub, is
smart and curious. She’s cautious
but picks up new concepts quickly.
Pandas are omnivores
who will occasionally eat
small animals and fish,
but 99 percent of their
diet consists of bamboo.
They spend about 12
hours per day eating 11 to
18 kilograms of bamboo.