Giant panda News

We know many of you miss watching Mei Xiang and Tian Tian on our panda cams. We want you to know we're working hard to get them up and running! As with many technical projects, we've hit some unanticipated delays.

Primarily, we're having issues with the new consoles and getting the audio system...

Maintaining the genetic diversity of giant pandas living in human care is a science?an exact science. SCBI scientist Jonathan Ballou determines how well-represented an individual panda's genes are in the captive population and makes breeding recommendations. In this panda update he explains how he...

We have some exciting news for all of our panda cam watchers! The panda cams, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company Fund, are going to be gradually upgraded. But in order to make the changes the cams will be turned off for a few weeks. The cams will most likely go dark around at the end of May and...

Both Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are returning to their normal routines, following the breeding season. Occasionally, we are still seeing some scent-marking or some restlessness, but their appetites have returned, and both are spending their days exploring their yards independently, with little interest...

This week's Giant Panda Update is from Mike Maslanka, head of the Department of Nutrition Science at the Zoo.

It's 6:15 a.m. It's dark and cold outside. Many folks around D.C. are still arguing with the snooze button. But in the morning darkness, the garage door of the Commissary at the Smithsonian's...

Breeding season has arrived! Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are exhibiting behaviors indicating that they are ready to breed; and Mei Xiang's hormones have begun to rise. That rise indicates that she is in estrus. Our giant panda breeding team — including Zoo keepers, reproductive scientists, veterinarians...

This week's giant panda news features a behavior update from keeper, Nicole MacCorkle.

Both Mei's and Tian's appetites have decreased a bit this week. Tian is bleating more at Mei (a high pitched contact call), and she is vocalizing back, although her vocalizations are anything but friendly. She...

Dr. Pierre Comizzoli is a reproductive cryobiologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. In this giant panda update he explains how the Zoo stores semen for endagered wildlife, which can be used for procedures like an artificial insemination.

The team of people at the Zoo who study...

In addition to the research Zoo scientists and their Chinese colleagues conduct on giant pandas, they also study red pandas. In this update Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer, lead veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Department of Conservation Medicine, writes about the research...

Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer is the lead veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Department of Conservation Medicine. In the past few months she and other Zoo scientists have traveled to China for different giant panda conservation initatives. Below she writes about some of...

Over the next few months we'll be bringing you giant panda updates that will focus on Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and the research Zoo scientists conduct related to giant pandas around the world. You'll be hearing from many different experts at the Zoo and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute...

One of the biggest questions scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) were working hand-in-hand with their colleagues in China to understand in the late 1990s was: why are pandas 'challenged' at reproducing? Almost a decade later, scientists are still answering questions...