Ocean Park

A Unique and Completely Indoor Habitat
Only two pandas live at Ocean Park but we wanted to include them in our study for two reasons. First, the more animals the better. Second, the pandas' habitat is unique: it is completely indoors and climate controlled.

Male An An and female Jia Jia were a gift to Hong Kong in March 1999, following the island's reunion with mainland China. Jia Jia had an estrus that same year but not since. At 22 years old she's reached panda menopause. An An has never shown any sexual behavior, he's one of the "low-libido" males. So it's interesting that An An is probably the most reactive animal we've tested. He played with the PVC elbow joint for a long time and went crazy over the anise-scented brick. Jia Jia wasn't too interested in the PVC but she enjoyed the scent.

Panda Stress Busters
Ocean Park keepers have done some amazing training with the giant pandas there. Training makes the animal's life less stressful, provides enrichment, and makes daily husbandry easier for keepers. The pandas here are trained to submit voluntarily to blood sampling, rectal temperature monitoring, chest x-ray, and ultrasound exams! We hope to learn Ocean Park's training methods and test them at NZP with Tian Tian and Mei Xiang.

We also visited the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Garden and the aviary in Hong Kong Park. The zoo and botanical garden is lovely, thickly planted with lush tropical vegetation. The zoo specializes in primates and birds. The aviary is also beautiful and thickly forested. You walk along an overhead walkway so that you are at eye level or higher than many of the birds.

Last stop: Beijing, an exciting place to be when the city learned that it will host the 2008 Olympic Games. > next page | 7 |

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