00:00The San Diego Zoo is celebrating Yun-Zee's first birthday and wow what a
00:08turnout and what a great treat they have all had when he first saw his ice cake.
00:12Happy birthday everyone.
00:15Cute, cute camel.
00:18Mom of course has had babies before. She recognizes what an ice cake is. She went
00:22over to it right away. This is Yun-Zee's first one so he was a little slow at
00:25first but once he figured it out, oh my gosh it was so funny. He's climbing all
00:29over it, licking it, eating it, exploring it. It was really a lot of fun.
00:33He's enjoying his bamboo birthday cake. It's made of ice and bamboo, frozen bamboo
00:39leaves, some apples, some drizzled honey. They created these amazing, for the first
00:44time ever, these bamboo bows out of leaves from the bamboo. He thought that was a
00:49great treat.
00:59Well pandas are notoriously curious and especially when they're young they like
01:09to climb up and check things out. No different today. He climbed up to the very
01:12top, wrestled with the one that was up there. When it broke off he went down with
01:16it, climbed right back up there and started playing some more. It was so cute.
01:20The perfect cake top birthday. What's better than a panda on top of a cake?
01:29Well throughout the weekend through Sunday, our guests can come down and wish our
01:32pandas happy birthday. They can write special notes and messages on the bamboo
01:36chimes that'll blow in the wind for them. There's also a lot of opportunities to
01:39meet keepers and researchers who do a lot of work with pandas. Yes we're excited
01:43about the birthdays and yes we want to celebrate and have fun, but it's important
01:46to remember all the conservation work that goes behind all this to make it happen.
01:50Giant pandas are a critically endangered species. With roughly 1,600 left in the
01:54world, the San Diego Zoo is committed to the conservation of this beautiful animal.
02:01This week we started the weaning process between Baiyun and Yunza. Yunza will be 18
02:07months old on the 5th and at about 18 months is when mom decides that it's time to
02:13kick Yunza out and he's self-sufficient. As you can see, he's eating bamboo all by
02:19himself and so she decided that it's time for him to stop stealing her bamboo and to
02:23get his own. The first step is what we're doing this week and we have the door shut
02:29between the two exhibits from the early morning until about noon and then the next
02:35step is to do early morning until the very last feeding which is at about 3 30 or 4 and
02:40then the last step is to separate overnight and then after that we will be separated all
02:45the time.
02:50The weaning process takes 2-3 weeks. We take our cues from the bears to see how
02:55well they do with weaning and 2-3 weeks depending on how comfortable they are.
03:04If he gets restless then we tend to, you know, we'll step in a little bit, maybe do a training
03:08session or give him a little bit more enrichment or food but we haven't had to do that more
03:13than the first day of weaning so he's doing very well.
03:18By Yun next is hopefully breeding season. She will be starting her estrus probably about
03:24March as she ages the estrus and the breeding time is becoming a little bit shorter so we're
03:31keeping a close eye on her. Hopefully we'll be breeding again March or April.
03:35June next will become an adult bear. He'll grow to be, we're hoping to be a big bear. He's the
03:44biggest cub so far and so he'll just, he'll be totally self-sufficient. They're independent
03:50throughout their entire life and so he'll be eating his own bamboo and finding his own way.
04:05This morning has been delightful. We are at the Giant Panda Research Station and we had the
04:21opportunity to present to By Yun, our mother, and Yunza, the cub, lots of toys that have been
04:29provided through the generosity of our online viewers and, and many, many donors to whom we're
04:35very grateful. To start with most of the items I drizzled just a little bit of honey on top because
04:42they, the pandas do have a sweet tooth and it really gets their attention. Then once they're,
04:48they've been drawn by the honey they may start playing with things which is certainly the case today.
04:53When Yunza came out the first toy he went to was a large plastic disc that was floating in a pond
05:04and he doesn't like to get wet so he's got to step on and sometimes it's a little wobbly,
05:11he's balancing but he keeps coming back to it and standing on it. Great for balance,
05:16great to challenge him, a new sensation and that's the kind of thing we like to introduce with our
05:23enrichment toys. Another fun thing he did was with another donut once he got the ball out of that one
05:32he tried to sit in the little hole in the middle. His behind is a little big for that but it was really
05:40fun to watch him.
06:01For all of the items we put out he made the rounds and he interacted with everything eventually.
06:10The pandas are strong, they enjoy manipulating items and and so it enhances their well-being to have
06:26variety in their environment which we always want to offer.
06:33Yunza's doing very well, he's growing well, he's healthy. As of yesterday he's 18 kilos which is
06:40just shy of 40 pounds. Well because he is a youngster and because it is a natural behavior to be up in
06:50the trees while mom is off foraging, that's often where he is when he's sleeping. He'll go way up in
06:58the top of the tree and he simply falls asleep.
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