8-30-08
10:10 p.m. A Cub is born!!!
Giant Panda Cub Born at Zoo Atlanta Lun Lun and Yang Yang are parents again

Birth watch update 10:00 p.m.
Lun Lun has been chewing on items this evening, but ignoring biscuits. However, she did just accept and eat some yummy sugar cane.

ZOO ATLANTA FEMALE GIANT PANDA LUN LUN’S WATER BREAKS!

Zoo Atlanta announces that female giant panda, Lun Lun’s water broke at approximately 1:25 pm today.  Lun Lun’s delivery process is beginning.

Lun Lun is expected to be a great second time mother.    

8-28-08
Zoo Confirms Giant Panda Pregnancy

Zoo Atlanta’s Animal Management and Veterinary Teams confirmed 11-year-old giant panda Lun Lun’s pregnancy at approximately 4:00 p.m. today. “During today’s ultrasound, we confirmed a fully formed fetus with a very strong heartbeat,” said Dr. Sam Rivera, Interim Director of Veterinary Services.

In late July, Lun Lun began demonstrating a sharp decrease in appetite, followed by lethargy, somnolence and withdrawn behavior – all normal and expected patterns for a female giant panda experiencing either pregnancy or pseudopregnancy. The change in Lun Lun’s habits prompted the Animal Management Team to begin 24-hour birth watch on August 9, 2008, initiating round-the-clock observation of Lun Lun’s den.

The confirmation of today’s ultrasound is a confirmed indication that birth is imminent!

8-12-08
The wait is on!
Giant Panda Birth Watch 2008 begins

Giant Panda Birth Watch has officially begun at Zoo Atlanta. The Zoo’s Animal Management and Veterinary Teams made the decision to begin 24-hour birth watch on Saturday, August 9, 2008, based on key behavioral changes observed in Lun Lun, our 10-year-old female giant panda.  

Late last week, the bear who’s usually first in line for bamboo brunch suddenly lost interest in her morning munchies. Over subsequent days, Lun Lun has grown increasingly more withdrawn, lethargic and unresponsive toward her keepers. The 230-pound sleepyhead has even turned ho-hum about regular training sessions, shutting those down with almost narcoleptic abruptness.

Her human friends aren’t alarmed, and they aren’t the slightest bit offended. Lun Lun’s behavior might look like a decline, but it’s actually a powerful revving of her reproductive engines for the final countdown … or so we hope. Zoo staff hopes that Lun Lun’s not alone in her new reclusiveness, and that somewhere in there, with any luck at all, there’s a tiny, fragile something preparing to arrive at some point in the next few weeks.

Veterans of 2006 Birth Watch – the year we waited for weeks on the pins and needles of a giant question mark, and even then, Lun Lun surprised us all with a record-breaking 34-hour labor – know that the question of when is also a question of if. Our might-be mama may still play the pseudopregnancy card (she could behave as if she’s pregnant, look like she’s pregnant, seem in all ways to be preparing for a birth, and in the end, not be pregnant), as she did for two consecutive years before the birth of Mei Lan.

Until that yet-to-be determined day when there’s new punctuation to replace the question mark, the Animal Management and Veterinary Teams are giving Lun Lun her space and observing her progress via round-the-clock monitoring. Snoozing in her den, she’s not likely to offer any more hints.

We still wait … we still watch … we still hope, and we still cross those pseudothumbs. We’re just crossing them harder now.

7-31-08
For those of us who were working at the Zoo in late summer 2006, it’s hard to believe that enough time has passed for us to have possibly reached that time again. Those of us who weren’t here two years ago are beginning to understand what that time means. And all of us enter together that exciting, nail-biting window we call Giant Panda Birth Watch.

Lun Lun’s a bit different from Kiki the lion, Shirley the warthog or Dottie the elephant in that there’s no concrete way to determine whether or not she’s expecting. While she’s is an old pro at ultrasounds, her insides – those long, hardworking intestines or even the remains of the morning’s bamboo breakfast – easily obstruct Vet staff’s view of a fetus weighing no more than a couple of ounces. Needless to say, ultrasounds are inconclusive at best.

	Graph of Lun Lun’s Progestins Data, 7-28-08

Equally inconclusive are Lun Lun’s behavior and hormonal results. As of July 28, urine samples sent to Smithsonian’s National Zoo Conservation and Research Center indicated that Lun Lun’s progestins had increased significantly, which does suggest that she may be drawing nearer to the birth window. The might-be mother, while active and hungry at present, should also become more lethargic, exhibit a sharp decrease in appetite and begin to prefer the solitude of her den. Changes in Lun Lun’s behavior, coupled with hormonal evidence, might seem to point with certainty at an impending birth.

What’s the catch? Giant pandas also exhibit a condition called pseudopregnancy, in which they demonstrate all the right behaviors and appropriate hormonal changes, but still aren’t pregnant. (Lun Lun herself had more than one pseudopregnancy prior to the birth of Mei Lan.) Thus, while the signs look great for a 2008 birth, it’s still a bit early to prepare a pink or blue bow (or both) for the giant panda habitat.

What do we do now? We watch, we wait, we analyze … and we cross our pseudothumbs.

Back to Zoo News