A Giant Panda Prologue: Getting to Know the Bears

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm rich Schwartz.

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Speaker 2: What is the world? I'm Marco went.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncovered fascinating animal facts. This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

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Speaker 2: Senor, I think it goes without say, right that the news of the giant pandas coming back to the San Diego Zoo has been the top story around here this year, right, And I can't believe it's been about five years since we've had giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo. I mean, there's so much to do and there's so much to talk.

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Speaker 3: About it, I know, I know, and our teams have been so busy getting everything ready, and not just our wildlife care team, our horticulture team, our construction and maintenance teams have all been doing so much in preparation for the giant pandas.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: It truly takes a village, And you know, I think it's worth mentioning just in case any of our young listeners don't know. The San Diego Zoo has a long history of caring for giant pandas. Thanks to a great partnership with China, we had two giant pandas visit the San Diego Zoo in nineteen eighty seven.

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Speaker 1: That's so long ago, I know.

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Speaker 2: But then in nineteen ninety six, in partnership with China Wildlife Conservation Association, bay Yun and Chishi came to stay with us, and the rest is history.

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, and what a great history it is too.

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Speaker 3: Over the many years the giant pandas have been at the San Diego Zoo, in collaboration with our partners, we have learned so much about giant panda behavior, reproduction and conservation. And I am thrilled to say we have been able to schedule time with one of our giant panda conservationists to learn more about these amazing black and white bamboo eating bears.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, this is gonna be so great.

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Speaker 2: I have so many questions, like who exactly are the two giant pandas that are going to call San Diego?

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Speaker 1: Oh yes?

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Speaker 3: And why do they eat mostly bamboo?

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Speaker 1: I mean they are a bear? Why bamboo? Wait?

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Speaker 3: Wait?

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Speaker 2: Wait, wait, shouldn't we just go ask the conservation it's these questions.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's a good idea. Let's go Mark, all right.

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Speaker 4: I am Megan Owen.

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Speaker 5: I'm the vice president of Conservation Science for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, Megan.

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Speaker 3: This is a big episode for us, Mark and I've been talking about across season getting ready for this.

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Speaker 1: It's been building, it's been building.

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Speaker 3: They're big, black and white bears. So yeah, let's talk about giant pandas.

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Speaker 2: There is so much to talk about right in particular. You know, first, what is a giant panda? I mean, let's assume there's someone listening right now has no idea what a panda is, right, So if you.

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Speaker 5: Could absolutely so, a giant panda is a bear species.

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Speaker 4: They are, as Rick mentioned, black and white.

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Speaker 5: They are incredibly beautiful, extremely charismatic, and they have all sorts of unique adaptations that allow them to persist entirely on a diet of bamboo. So when we think about bears, you think of grizzly bears and polar bears and black bears, and we don't think about bears sitting in a stand of grass basically and making a living that way. But that's what pandas do and there are exquisitely adapted to that lifestyle. And if you get that opportunity to sit and watch a panda eat bamboo, you will be Mesmarah.

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Speaker 1: It really is.

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Speaker 3: It's impressive too, because bamboo is not easy to break and they're like chomping on Yeah. But I want to go back mark when I talked to Page Howorth about butterflies and moths, and came up in that episode that there's a part of the season where a moth species really helped certain brown bear sustain life. And we talked a little bit then about how they are omnivorous. And in past seasons we've talked about bear species that are omnivorous and then polar bears that are seal hunters. Only for the most part, pandas they're like, I'm going to eat bamboo. What give us a little more on that, Like, how does that happen? Even though you have a true bear species, it's going to be like I'm seating grass.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's an amazing, amazing feat of nature actually, and actually, ironically, giant pandas and polar bears have a lot more in common and most people with things, so it's sort of the same way. Polar bears are reliant on fatty ice seals and they can make their living exclusively on those seals. And related species giant pandas have also evolved this niche within their ecosystem that allows them to persist on a diet at bamboo, and they're not competing with other large mammals for that bamboo. They don't have to chase down that.

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Speaker 2: True bamboos like getting up and running away anytimes.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely so they can just basically roll over to their next bite. It's incredibly energetically efficient. And then they have a number of adaptations, both anatomical and physiological, that allow them to get all that they need from bamboo, and we typically say that they get about ninety nine point five percent of their diet from bamboo, and because occasionally they will take a bite of something else, and they can and will eat other things, but it's not their preferred food source.

00:05:02
Speaker 4: It's not what makes panda's tick, and it's.

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Speaker 5: Not what allows them to reach their optimal health and reproductive output and all of those things that make a panda healthy and happy.

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Speaker 2: I mean amazing, bears are adapt I was reading the nuances of some of things. They may be consuming some bugs, some fruit carrying even as well, but again it's mainly going to be bamboo, right, And we were talking about this particular region in China. It's super unique. I mean you mentioned other bears, like I'm thinking the Asiatic block bear in the area, but this panda, this bears unique. Can you describe this area in China?

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Speaker 1: What makes it so awesome?

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Speaker 5: This area of China is extraordinarily beautiful. So giant pandas are found in a few provinces in south central China. Sichuan Province is where the majority of pandas exist. I think about two thirds of giant pandas are in Sichuan Province. And the mountains are extraordinary. They are steep and they are rocky, and they are covered in pine trees and large as a bamboo with rivers and streams and an incredible array of birds, of amphibians, of other mammals. It's incredibly biodiverse. And actually giant pandas overlap and range with Asiatic black bears, but they exist in very different types of habitat and they rely on different food sources. So giant pandas and their habitat are unique and beautiful and extraordinary representation of the natural world. It's interesting too because in recent years a national park has been established around giant panda habitat, and over the past several decades, the Chinese government has established about seventy nature preserves for giant panda and this national park encapsulates all of that, and so that is just an extraordinary benefit to the conservation of giant pandas and all of the other wildlife and animals and plants that coexist in that habitat.

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Speaker 4: So really ordinary part of the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent for it. I mean we were talking earlier the diversity of I mean some of those other species like these are endangered by the where the endangered golden monkey, We have the vulnerable talking You and I have big talking fans, right, And of course I got to bring up a bird crested eyebiss. You guys, there were ten of these birds in the nineteen eighties. Now we have a little over three hundred and thirty adults out there. So it's a vibrant area, right, So it is important to protect this really beautiful species of black and white mammal to help encompass all these others, right, So it's really great having this conversation.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely.

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Speaker 5: I mean people consider giant pandas and umbrella species, yes, and that you know they range over relatively large areas, and by protecting giant pandas, they create an umbrella of safety for other wildlife species. And that's part of the beauty of it. And we can engender support for conservation through giant pandas. You know, people love giant pandas and rightly so. But when you love giant pandas, you're also expressing your love for all the other wildlife species that share the habitat with.

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Speaker 3: Them, right, And that goes into the things we've talked about for how the diversity within a habitat keeps it healthy.

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Speaker 1: So if you're going to take.

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Speaker 3: Care of and preserve pandas, you've got to have that healthy habitat, which means you have to have all these other species in there to help keep that habitat and ecosystem in good health. So I love the way you put that. If you're loving pandas, you're loving the habitat, you're loving everything the ecosystem all the birds, reptiles, mammals, everybody else, because that's what's going to give the pandas their home. So I really like the way you put that. That is really really cool, and with talking about that love with falling in love with in which we know, we've all been with this organization for a long time. We all know, and we've seen it in people's eyes. We've seen it on their faces when they walk up and see a panda for the first time, they fall in love. You can't help but fall in love. I remember when I first started working at the zoo twenty four years ago, the first time I finally went down to Panda Canyon and saw a panda.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, I got to see all the fuss is about. I was like, oh, oh, that's immediately yeah, And I was like, oh, come on, talk to.

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Speaker 3: Us about the new pandas that are coming to the San Diego Zoo that our public will eventually get to fall in love with.

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Speaker 5: So I'm going to do my best to describe them without using the word cute, but no guarantee that might be impossible. But so, the two giant pandas that are coming to San Diego are incredible young bears. Shinboo is a four year old female, or she'll be four later this summer.

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Speaker 4: She is playful.

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Speaker 5: I've kind of described her as mischievous. You know, she's definitely thinking, and she's moving, and she's interested in her environment. Just cannot wait to spend more time with her here and watch her and her behavior as she develops. And then you and Schwan is a young male who will turn five years old later this summer. And he is a beautiful, big young man bear and he loves his bamboo. He's definitely a bit more laid back than Shinboo. Most special fact about him is that he he is the son of Juan Juan, who was born at.

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Speaker 4: The San Diego Zoo.

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Speaker 5: And he's also the grandson of Bayoun and Gao Gao who were at the San Diego Zoo for many many years.

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Speaker 4: He is a handsome young bear.

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Speaker 5: And again, you know, we have really gone out of our way to expand the size of the habitat. Now the habitat goes up the hillside beyond where it did before, which is very similar to the habitat they have in China. So it's going to be a treat for everybody. As a researcher, I can't wait to study them and to take the learnings that we get here with them and apply them to our understanding of the species in the wild.

00:10:41
Speaker 1: There's so much to unpi. Oh my gosh, no, no, no, don't be sorry. This is awesome.

00:10:46
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to First of all, how cool is it that the male coming to us he has history here through genetics. I mean, that's such a cool tie in to have that link back to Bayoune and Gaugao.

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Speaker 4: I think it's really important.

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Speaker 5: You know, the program here at the San Diego Zoo Wild Left Alliance started in nineteen ninety six, so this was the first cooperative agreement with our Chinese colleagues. And going back in time and thinking about the state of things for giant pandas then there were fewer than a thousand giant pandas on the planet, and at that point in time too, conservation breeding or breeding under human care for conservation was not worked out, and it was really rare for that to happen. And in the twenty plus years that our first program existed, Bayune showed us what it meant to be a healthy, happy mom panda. You know, she had six young pandas. Gaugao was the sire of five of those, and that's an extraordinary legacy. So Bayune was an incredible bear. Gaugao was an amazing bear to watch. And then the work that the team did to support learning about giant pandas, learning about what they needed to survive and thrive, is something I'm very proud of. I came to work at the San Diego Zoo as part of the Giant Panda program. That was my first job ever in a zoo and getting to step into that kind of collaboration, getting to step into that conservation focus program was.

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Speaker 4: A real treat.

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Speaker 5: So having Yun Schwan here as Bayoun and Gaugao's grandson is it just continues that legacy. I think people are going to really connect with him and that history.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, it speaks to like traditions, right yeah. I mean this whole year, every time I go to the zoo, I have guests coming up to me asking me about the pandas, and you see like the excitement and they tell me their personal stories and that makes me smile because you're thinking, we always say conservation begins with people, right, and so we're connecting our communities in San Diego with the wonderful people in China as well, and this magical animal that we all get to experience and really make an impact for what you were describing, this beautiful, vibrant area in China. So we're all very very excited about And I had no idea this was your first job here at saying the easy wild there full lines coming into it for Pandas.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it was. I feel very very lucky.

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Speaker 5: And the other piece of it too is you know, when we think about collaboration, we collaborate amongst the scientific staff. You know, we collaborate really closely with the wildlife care specialists and the wildlife care team. We collaborate with the wildlife health team. We collaborate with our communications team, we collaborate with our education team, we collaborate with our operational teams.

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Speaker 4: It is all hands.

00:13:30
Speaker 5: On deck, everyone working together and getting people to rally around giant Pandas is not hard, not hard at all.

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Speaker 3: You had mentioned in your previous answer to you're talking a lot about their personalities, which I know you have been to China multiple times, But.

00:13:48
Speaker 1: Explain a little to our guests.

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Speaker 3: What is that like to be able to travel all the way to China to go meet them, and not only meet them, but then obviously the counterparts have been taking care of them over there in China and the people on that side of it who are just as passionate about the conservation for pandas as we are.

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Speaker 1: What is that like for you to be able.

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Speaker 3: To I don't know, for lack of a better term, be the link between the two organizations and the many different groups that are coming together to make this happen.

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Speaker 5: I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to connect with our colleagues in China around Giant pandas. It's not just me, of course, you know, many many on our team have developed relationships through this collaboration over the years and will continue to do so into the future. But you realize that this is, you know, on the other side of the world. This is in the you know, the mountains high and Sichuan Province of China. But we all care about the same things. We all care about a healthy environment, we all care about the individual pandas and the health of the population of pandas. We all care about sustaining this biodiversity conservation into the future and we're faced with many challenges, but through working together, we have so much more power to solve these problems. And having this opportunity to share knowledge, to gain insights, to learn, and to continue to plan for a brighter future is just an extraordinary opportunity.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah, it's super exciting.

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Speaker 2: And to incorporate, you know, all the wonderful guests I can get the opportunity to take part in all these conservation efforts. Hopefully in the future they can come in the San Diego Zoo and see these two vibrant pandas, you know, just being right.

00:15:24
Speaker 3: Just being with all the work that goes into this and all the many people like you said, it's not just you, definitely not just you. Can you explain or expand a little more on our partnerships that we have for this process and not just the process of the panda's coming here, but then the long term look forward at conservation and research for giant pandas.

00:15:46
Speaker 5: Sure, so again you know, there's been a lot of improvement in the status of giant pandas over the past twenty five years, and again that improvement comes as a product of collaboration. But we're not done yet, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure the sustained recovery of giant pandas and their habitat. And so we've been working together and in consult with our colleagues in China to develop a research strategy that will continue to support the survival of giant pandas as a species. And so this is going to be really interesting for us. And we have talked a lot about biodiversity conservation and the context of giant pandas, and so one of the things that we want to do is apply some of the technological innovations that we have developed here in our conservation tech lab and with partners in other places around the world, and apply this kind of multidimensional biodiversity monitoring through technology in giant panda habitat. And we've talked a bit about this with our colleagues there and they're very excited about it. But I think it's going to be an important new dimension to our research. And then we're also really focused on the health of individual giant pandas and the health of giant panda populations, and so our Wildlife Health team is going to be very actively involved in studying the pandas at the San Diego Zoo, but also working with our partners in China to understand population health for giant pandas. It's just critically important for again the sustained recovery.

00:17:19
Speaker 4: Of the species.

00:17:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, so cool.

00:17:21
Speaker 2: I know it's so exciting. But you know, we're talking all these amazing projects that are going to be happening in the future. But I kind of want to like go back a little bit. I'm trying to picture like little little baby Megan here, like like, were you were you always a panda fan? You know into pandas? Is there a certain memory that kind of comes up?

00:17:38
Speaker 4: No?

00:17:39
Speaker 5: I mean I did not have a predetermined interest in pandas before I started working here. My pathway, my professional pathway, was very indirect, and I actually started my post high school career in art school, and then I explored more social sciences and eventually wound up as an undergraduate focused in biology.

00:18:01
Speaker 4: But for pre med.

00:18:02
Speaker 5: Fast forward, I fell in love with wildlife biology, started working in the Arctic and you know, just in the great outdoors. But then I grew up in San Diego and I decided that I wanted to try to come home and work here, and this opportunity came up at the San Diego Zoo working with Giant Pandas.

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Speaker 4: Wow, So I said, I'll give it a try.

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Speaker 5: And you know, that was back in nineteen ninety seven, so it's been a while, but it was really a career defining moment for me because what I learned through this program was that you have to maintain that laser focus on your conservation objectives and you have to work together. There is nothing gained to achieve something you know by yourself. You will have a much greater impact if you work with others and you gain from the knowledge and expertise that's available both on the team that you're working on and externally. So collaboration and has just woven through everything I do in my work here and as an organization, we really lean into that.

00:19:07
Speaker 1: That's a great story.

00:19:08
Speaker 2: I know, I had no idea that to the Arctic Asia Hub here at.

00:19:14
Speaker 1: We're so happy to long journey, I know, Well, thank you so much for your time.

00:19:18
Speaker 3: We really appreciate you hanging out with for a little bit and talking about the Giant Pandas. We'll probably be asking for more information for you as a year moves on. I think we'll probably talk totally, But is there anything we didn't mention that you'd like to share with our audience.

00:19:31
Speaker 5: That is a great question. I can talk about pandas you.

00:19:34
Speaker 4: Knows, and hours and hours.

00:19:37
Speaker 5: It's really important for people to understand the impact they have by supporting species like giant pandas. By coming here and experiencing the giant pandas and the other wildlife species that live at the San Diego Zoo, that connection that's fostered, you know, becomes something that will inspire and drive them towards more conservation minded activities and engagement. You might look at butterflies in your own backyard differently after you get that kind of close up experience with a giant panda and think about, you know, how connected everything is. So that web of biodiversity, that web of life, you know, it's beautiful to see it embodied by the giant panda. And I hope people experience that when they come to the San Diego Zoo.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. It's perfect. Thank you friend, Thank you so much, Megan, appreciate it.

00:20:32
Speaker 4: It's my pleasure.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: Wow, that was a lot of giant panda information, But now I'm kind of excited for our next panda episode.

00:20:43
Speaker 1: Oh, I know exactly what you mean, Marco.

00:20:44
Speaker 3: I mean from being specialized bamboot eaters and the ongoing conservation efforts and everything else.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: Megan shured so much with us.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I really liked how Megan pointed out that the conservation research for giant pandas was about understanding the needs of a healthy individual bear and an understanding what it takes to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

00:21:03
Speaker 1: Right, it is also connected.

00:21:05
Speaker 3: Oh and speaking of connections, I still cannot get over the fact that Yun Schwan is a son of Jenjen, who was born right here at the San Diego Zoo in two thousand and seven. It's really something special. It kind of feels like a sort of a little nostalgic homecoming of sorts.

00:21:18
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it is special, and you're absolutely right, Rick, it feels like a little family reunion. I mean, we have so many staff members that were part of the Giant pandas when they were here years ago. Like Mecan said, it's the wildlife care team, the wildlife health team, the horticulture team, the communications team, oh, the education team, and so much more. Right, the entire familia's coming back together.

00:21:41
Speaker 3: As they say, it takes a village, right, and what a difference the village has made over the years. I was really impressed with the fact that the improvement in the Giant Pani's conservation status is due to years of collaboration and people from all over the world working together, from the conservationists and care staff in China to the conservationists and wildlife care staff here in San Diego, and so much more.

00:22:00
Speaker 4: No doubt.

00:22:01
Speaker 2: In speaking of the collaborations and many specialist from all over the world working together, I think it's about time we share with our listeners how all that works.

00:22:09
Speaker 3: Right. Ooh, you know what, I think you're right. How about instead of behind the scenes with the wildlife care specialist, we go behind the scenes and see who does what with all these conservation projects.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: Ooh, I like how your brain works, friend, and I think our audience will find it fascinating as well.

00:22:24
Speaker 5: Well.

00:22:24
Speaker 3: Then it's decided, be sure to subscribe and tune into our next episode, in which we learn more about the inner workings of the San Diego Zoo and the many conservation projects and partners.

00:22:34
Speaker 1: All around the world. Al Marco went and I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening.

00:22:45
Speaker 3: For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers our cer A Screen and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.