VOL. 1 | 2017 THE SCIENCE OF

SAN DIEGO GLOBAL INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION RESEARCH

GIANT PANDAS: A Story of Hope Two decades of challenges, discoveries, and successes—no longer endangered! Both of our experiences exemplified an essential lesson learned for international

collaboration: if you make friends first, More than two decades of GIANT PANDAS: science and teamwork will follow. experience with panda –RON SWAISGOOD, PH.D., AND MEGAN OWEN, PH.D. behavior, diet, breeding, and reproduction in partnership with our Chinese colleagues The Road to Recovery has led to new discoveries BY RON SWAISGOOD, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF RECOVERY ECOLOGY, that have made the future AND MEGAN OWEN, PH.D., ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF RECOVERY ECOLOGY Still Saving Giant Pandas much brighter for the Outside of China, ’s breeding program is second to none. giant panda. Two decades ago, we could hardly imagine that the giant panda would Our lovely matriarch, , has given birth to six healthy cubs at the Zoo and now has one day be downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable. San Diego 14 grandcubs back in China, including one great-grandcub! Adding to that accomplishment Zoo Global is proud to have played an important role in setting the is the tremendous body of knowledge we have gained from this iconic species, resulting in giant panda on the road to recovery, as we reflect on some of the most “more than 70 scientific publications. While we are delighted that the panda was downlisted poignant and personal moments that have marked this journey. from Endangered to Vulnerable last year on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, we know this beloved animal still needs our help—the goal is nothing less than a sustainable population on remembers his beginning as if it were yesterday. He began working at the and successful reintroduction to China’s forests. breeding center at China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve in 1995. In those R days we didn’t get the red carpet treatment, and Ron spent the first few weeks How You Can Help as the only foreigner there, feeling isolated, cold, and lonely . . . and making little ” progress with his research. This was aimed at getting pandas to do what is supposed Our field research teams all over the world rely on the generosity of donors like you to help achieve San Diego Zoo Global’s vision to lead the fight against extinction. To learn ways you can help, please call to come naturally—mate! After weeks of rain, snow, and sleet, the sun came out and Maggie Aleksic at 760-747-8702, option 2, ext. 5762, or email [email protected]. the “Wolong guys” got out a basketball. Ron decided to join the daily game and almost immediately everything changed. Poor cooperation turned into good friendships, and two decades of camaraderie and collaboration followed. ON THE COVER: Bai Yun has been a phenomenal mother to all six of her cubs. Here she is dandling her fifth cub, male , born in 2009. Continued next page 2 .

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A FEW YEARS LATER, MEGAN ARRIVED AT WOLONG “signs”: feeding sites, scent marks, and especially on a cold winter evening with her family in tow—husband, their droppings, which provide a treasure trove toddler, and baby—ready to embark on four months of research of information. These include diet, DNA, in the heart of the giant panda’s home. Children are beloved gender, and hormones. And, since they leave there, so Megan and her family were quickly integrated into about 50 of these nuggets a day, they leave the social fabric of Wolong. Being part of this extended family a perfect record of where they’ve been not only made the tea warmer and the food tastier, it also and their habitat preferences. meant that the Wolong staff was keen to work with Megan We now understand that female toward our collective research goals. Most importantly, pandas need access to old-growth trees long-term trust was established that also helped us large enough to contain a cavity suitable make progress toward common goals. Both of our Leading the Way for rearing their cubs. We are working experiences exemplified an essential lesson learned with our partners on a trial using artificial for international collaboration: if you make friends for Panda Conservation maternity dens, creating denning habitat while first, science and teamwork will follow. waiting for some of the old-growth forests to Today, the San Diego Zoo holds the only foreign Over the years, many San Diego Zoo Global teams grow back. We’ve also learned that younger forests position on the China State Forestry Administration’s pitched in, tackling groundbreaking research in provide good habitat where pandas can forage. As behavior, husbandry, reproductive physiology, this forest matures and recovers, they are using it Reintroduction Advisory Panel. We chair the Giant genetics, nutrition, disease, and more. All more and more—and that’s a good thing for the future of Panda Expert Team of the International Union this helped lead to a dramatic turnaround, pandas. We now understand how solitary pandas find one for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the leading and now the panda population is growing another, how they use scent and vocal signals to stimulate international conservation organization for exponentially, with two or three dozen sexual motivation, and how they compete for and choose their evaluating endangered species and setting cubs born each year. mates. Recently, using DNA from droppings, we determined priorities, as well as the Giant Panda that pandas have a modest amount of inbreeding. This is nothing With the managed population Species Survival Plan of the Association to be alarmed about but something to pay attention to as habitat growing, our attention turned fragmentation may make it more difficult for them to find suitable, of and Aquariums (AZA). next to saving giant pandas in unrelated mates. The Zoo was the recent co-recipient the wild. Working with the of the AZA International Chinese Academy of Sciences These scientific findings have been invaluable for guiding management Conservation Award for our and others, we placed GPS and policy for giant pandas. Panda habitat is increasing as forests recover, tracking devices on pandas the panda’s range is expanding, and panda numbers in the wild are up: they scientific approaches to so we could monitor their are on the road to recovery. We celebrate this accomplishment, a testimony conservation of giant pandas movements as well as to how hard work and persistent collaborative efforts can rescue endangered and their habitat. learn from studying their species from the brink of extinction. 

Bai Yun

Shi Shi SPRING 1998 Bai Yun’s first artificial GIANT PANDA insemination CONSERVATION SPRING 1997 PROGRAM Bai Yun’s first estrus CONTINUED > 1995-2005 SEPT. 10, 1996 in San Diego TIMELINE 1996-2006 APRIL 8-9, 1999 San Diego Zoo AUGUST 1999 Sensory ecology Bai Yun and research on breeding Bai Yun’s next artificial AUGUST 21, 1999 studies at Wolong arrive First ultrasound begins in Wolong insemination confirmation of pregnancy is born! 3 in San Diego 4 Giant Panda Conservation Breeding: SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL By Meghan Martin-Wintle, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Megan Owen, Ph.D., Panda Family Tree Associate Director of Recovery Ecology, and Ron Swaisgood, Ph.D., Director of Recovery Ecology

In an exciting new collaborative program, we are preparing pandas born at the breeding centers for life in the wild. —Megan Martin-Wintle, Ph.D. SHI SHI GAO GAO

MEI SHENG HUA MEI + 2003 WITH MORE THAN 35 CUBS BORN male pandas in the program to breed 1999 BAI YUN in 2016, and a worldwide population more reliably. Building on recent research where we demonstrated WE ALSO HELP DEVELOP YUN HUI of more than 400 giant pandas in 2011 breeding centers and zoos, many of that pandas produce many more TRAINING PROGRAMS DESIGNED “ SU LIN + the challenges faced in the early days cubs if they are allowed to mate TO TEACH PANDAS SPECIFIC SURVIVAL TWINS 2005 with a partner they have chosen, of the panda breeding program have ”SKILLS FOR THRIVING IN THE WILD, SUCH 2004 SU XING been overcome. However, the ultimate we are investigating how infusing TUAN TUAN (L) 2014 AS AVOIDING PREDATORS, FORAGING, MEI LING (R) goal of this effort is to sustain a a little male-male competition prior NAVIGATION, AND MAINTAINING + healthy population to support recovery to breeding increases testosterone + PROPER SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 2013 + of the species in the wild, dependent levels and a male giant panda’s Bai Yun’s TWINS on natural mating and cub survival. motivation to mate. WITH OTHER PANDAS. great- 2005 granddaughter! WEI WEI (L) UNNAMED TING TING (R) 2007 2015 Our research is focused on individual In an exciting new collaborative giant pandas that are genetically program, we are preparing pandas + + poorly represented in the population. born at the breeding centers for life in To prepare for reintroduction, TWINS the wild. We are the only foreign entity we screen individual pandas and 2007 + Conservation breeding programs HUA LONG (L) have to work with very small invited to work on the reintroduction evaluate their behavioral competence HUA AO (R) populations, and often enticing the program, a tangible acknowledgement compared to their wild counterparts. YUN ZI pair that will promote the most of the trust we have built over two In the near future, we will be working 2009 genetic variability in the entire decades in this close partnership. with China West Normal University to population to actually mate with Although the panda population is track released pandas and learn from each other can be one of the trickiest recovering in the wild, there are still our successes and challenges. With parts! In collaboration with our many small populations living in a little luck and a lot of effort and + + colleagues at the China Conservation reserves and forest fragments that teamwork, our goal is to establish HAO HAO YANG HU HUA RONG 2009 2010 2012 2013 2012 and Research Center for the Giant would benefit from new pandas with new and improved populations of Panda, we are working on getting a different set of genes. pandas in the wild. 

Cubs born in China Cubs born at the San Diego Zoo

AUGUST 2003 APRIL 2003 Gao Gao Mei Sheng is born! First natural mating in San Diego GIANT PANDA with Gao Gao APRIL 2005 CONSERVATION Natural mating PROGRAM between Gao Gao CONTINUED > JULY 2003 and Bai Yun 2003 AUGUST TIMELINE FEBRUARY First voluntary ultrasound 2006 2003 2005 with giant panda and First scouting trip to Foping, Research in Foping Gao Gao arrives confirmation of met with Chinese Academy Su Lin is born begins with CAS on of Sciences (CAS) 5 in San Diego pregnancy habitat needs 6 DAY 1 Held high in Bai Yun’s arms, MANY ROADS TO THE the newborn panda was hard to Giant Panda’s Recovery see with video cameras. Karyl Carmignani, Publications, Staff Writer DAY 20 Bai Yun was a great mom from WHEN THE FIRST GIANT PANDAS, Basi and GAO GAO SAVES THE DAY the beginning. This was a typical Yuan Yuan, arrived at the Zoo in 1987 on a 6-month In 2003, breeding male Gao Gao arrived with “This is a story of hope, pose as she cradles the cub loan from China, little was known of the panda’s much fanfare. Although on the petit side, he reproductive physiology, behavior, and ecology. was keenly motivated when Bai Yun was ready moving the panda one step against her chest. Fans could also When a 12-year panda loan was negotiated in 1996, to mate, changing our program dramatically watch daily on Panda Cam. Bai Yun and Shi Shi debuted at the San Diego Zoo, and maximizing breeding success. Five cubs further from extinction, and a new era in panda conservation was launched. later, Bai Yun and Gao Gao have both made vast The Moores Family Giant Panda Research Station contributions to our breeding program. and a reminder that when DAY 22 was built as a home base and work space for An early exam of Hua Mei, when researchers and panda keepers. Our horticulture HEALTHY PANDAS we work together, we can her mother left the den to get a staff developed a browse program to satisfy the Managing giant pandas so they are thriving drink of water. Our team took a bears’ bamboo diet. Then our Institute scientists and able to engage in natural behaviors like quick look for just a few minutes. pooled their expertise to understand giant pandas, breeding is a major collaborative effort. Dr. Meg recover species from the and before long, history was made. Sutherland-Smith (pictured), Director of Veterinary Services, focuses on brink of extinction.” Boosting Panda Survival the complexities of giant panda FIRST STEPS What we learned from pandas in zoos and care, from disease prevention to While Shi Shi was not able to —Megan Owen, Ph.D. breeding centers is benefiting wild pandas geriatric care. Training pandas breed Bai Yun, researchers today. Working with Chinese colleagues to for health exams, such as carefully documented her develop a conservation strategy and create letting veterinarians examine ovulation cycle and collected protected panda reserves, San Diego Zoo their teeth or take their blood Shi Shi’s sperm. Led by Dr. Global played a significant role in bringing pressure, is something we Barbara Durrant, head of this beloved species back from the brink of can share with our Chinese the Reproductive Sciences extinction. It has been a productive 20 years! team, these efforts resulted colleagues and other facilities. in a carefully timed artificial Also, our Disease Investigations • Our teams developed a panda milk formula insemination procedure, which experts have led a series of and a hand-rearing technique, raising she performed in 1999. Over the workshops in China on giant panda survival rates of nursery-reared cubs from next several weeks the 15-member health and disease management. zero to 95 percent. panda team waited to hear if Bai Yun Frequent health checks • Institute researchers developed thermal was pregnant. Then Barbara and ensured that Hua Mei A CALL TO ACTION imaging for early pregnancy diagnosis. Dr. Pat Morris, Director of Veterinary was thriving. After 20 years on the panda team here, • A goal of 300 pandas was reached Services, decided to do an ultrasound, Dr. Megan Owen explains, “This is a in zoos and breeding centers in 2010, the first ever on a panda. The two stood breathless, story of hope, moving the panda one step further needed to sustain the species. looked up, and silently mouthed, “Oh, my God!— from extinction, and a reminder that when we In 2003, breeding male Gao Gao arrived with much there is a fetus!” A few days later, Hua Mei was work together, we can recover species from the • Historic collaboration with Chinese born—on Barbara’s birthday—the first panda cub to brink of extinction. ‘Hope’ is fundamentally a call fanfare. Although on the petit side, he was keenly scientists: the teams track wild pandas survive in the U.S. and the first successful artificial to action, and the panda’s story is one I believe will motivated when Bai Yun was ready to mate, changing our at Foping using GPS technology. insemination of a panda. Barbara still calls it “the serve to inspire increased collaborative efforts to • China increased its panda reserves from most exhilarating moment of my career.” save many, many more species.”  program dramatically and maximizing breeding success. 4 to 67, to provide habitat for this national —KARYL CARMIGNANI treasure to thrive.

AUGUST JULY 2012 2009 2013-PRESENT Xiao Liwu Yun Zi is born is born Courtship studies on mate choice GIANT PANDA 2015 SEPTEMBER 2016 Research collaboration Pandas downlisted CONSERVATION with China West from Endangered to PROGRAM MAY 2008 Normal University OCTOBER 2016 Vulnerable by the IUCN. TIMELINE Sichuan earthquake “ San Diego Zoo is invited San Diego Zoo participated in AUGUST 2007 devastates Wolong breeding to first reintroduction the assessment process. Zhen Zhen center, killing people conference hosted is born and pandas. by China 7 ” 8 Conservation Achievements Gifts & Grants HONORS AND AWARDS

Dr. Jenny Glikman (Community Engagement) was Dr. Megan Owen (Recovery Ecology) was appointed to the selected as an At-Large Board Representative for role of research advisor for the Association of Zoos and A few years after the San Diego Zoo Institute for Institute through the Society for Conservation Biology’s Social Science Aquariums Bear Taxon Advisory Group. Conservation Research was founded in 1975, Dr. Donald the Donald & Working Group. G. Lindburg brought his considerable knowledge and Linda Lindburg Dr. Oliver Ryder (Conservation Genetics) was named a expertise to San Diego Zoo’s conservation program as its Conservation Legacy David O’Connor (Global Partnerships) has been invited trustee of the Genome 10K initiative. first dedicated behaviorist. Over his decades-long career Fund, which Dr. to join the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, serving on the with us, Dr. Lindburg achieved significant conservation Lindburg established Asiatic Black Bear and Sun Bear Expert Teams. milestones, helping numerous species, but he is perhaps in 2014. This endowment best known in the zoo world for his contributions to giant is Dr. Lindburg’s way of At 54 days of age, Hua Mei’s eyes panda, lion-tailed macque, and cheetah breeding efforts. ensuring that the scientists were starting to open and she could who carry on his work will crawl a bit. For Don Lindburg, HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS Linda, Don’s wife, was always have the resources the young cub “continued to add equally passionate they need. The endowment is mystery and wonder to our lives by Davis, E. O., D. O’Connor, B. Crudge, A. Carignan, Steiner, C. C., S. J. Charter, N. Goddard, H. Davis, M. Brandt, about animals and also a very personal tribute: just being a panda.” J. A. Glikman, C. Browne-Nuñez, and M. Hunt. 2016. M. L. Houck, and O. A. Ryder. 2015. Chromosomal dedicated her “One of the things that Understanding public perceptions and motivations variation and perinatal mortality in San Diego Zoo talents as the inspired me in all of this is managing editor that my dear wife, Linda, was a zoo nut,” Dr. Lindburg around bear part use: A study in northern Laos of Soemmerring’s gazelles. Zoo Biology 34: 374-384. of the journal notes, along with “the great pleasure I derived from attitudes of Chinese tourists and Lao PDR nationals. Summarizing 35 years of data, we analyzed the effect of Zoo Biology. managing the panda program.” Biological Conservation 203: 282-289. chromosomal and genetic variation on early life mortality Sadly, we lost This collaborative study revealed differences between in Soemmerring’s gazelles. Low levels of genetic diversity Linda far too On the birth of Hua Mei in 1999, Don said, “if there is one Chinese tourists and Lao nationals in their attitudes and high relatedness values among founders suggest soon, but her word that summarizes this unique event for our team, it toward bears and the use of bear products, as well as that outbreeding depression is less of a concern than name lives on at the is the word hope. We have renewed hope that this birth their consumer preferences. We are using these data to inbreeding for maintaining a sustainable zoo population. is only the first in a successful breeding program, . . . inform the design of demand reduction campaigns that and we hope that this magnificent species will escape better resonate with Laotians. Tubbs, C. W., L. A. Moley, J. A. Ivy, L. C. Metrione, extinction in its native land.” This year, the Lindburg S. LaClaire, R. G. Felton, B. S. Durrant, and M. R. Milnes. Conservation Legacy Fund will support giant panda Miller, L. J., C. B. Pisacane, and G. A. Vicino. 2016. 2016. Estrogenicity of captive southern white rhinoceros After Bai Yun arrived at the Zoo reintroduction efforts in China. As Dr. Lindburg Relationship between behavioral diversity and faecal diets and their association with fertility. General and in 1996, Don and a team of led the panda team when our first panda was glucocorticoid metabolites: A case study with cheetahs volunteer behaviorists spent Comparative Endocrinology 238: 32-38. born here, it is only fitting that he has a hand in Acinonyx jubatus. Animal Welfare 25: 325-329. hours each day at the panda We investigated the role of phytoestrogens in reproductive helping return pandas to the wild.  exhibit, observing and recording In this study, we showed that lower glucocorticoid levels failure of captive-born female southern white rhinos. We her behaviors as well as those for correlate with higher levels of behavioral diversity in 18 found that high phytoestrogen levels in the diet negatively When our second panda, Mei Sheng, was born in August 2003, Shi Shi and Gao Gao. This led to a cheetahs at the San Diego Zoo . Discovering impact reproductive success and recommend that zoos it was not a surprise to the Zoo’s scientists. It confirmed that by better understanding of natural mating noninvasive methods for monitoring physiological stress is breeding this species reduce the levels of these chemicals monitoring panda behavior during the mating season, we could behaviors and the successful births of critical to optimizing animal welfare in zoos. in their rhino diets. reasonably predict another pregnancy. six cubs in San Diego.

9 10 RECOVERY ECOLOGY POPULATION SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS Together with our During the koala breeding We extended our Teacher Together with the U.S. State partners, we developed season, we participated in Workshops in Conservation Department, we hosted the a novel geofence field research that included Science to key range country inaugural Zoohackathon. system that uses virtual deploying GPS collars, partners, including Save Teams of programmers boundaries placed around tracking wild koalas, and the Elephants, Free the Bears, and designers joined us to wind farms to provide ecological data collection The Giraffe Centre, Lewa address wildlife trafficking, early warning alerts in Australia’s Greater Wildlife Conservancy, Saiga including the national winning whenever telemetered Blue Mountains World Conservation Alliance, app, WildTrack, that allows California condors fly too Heritage Area. CEDO Intercultural, and the public to notify authorities close to wind turbines. Pronatura Noroeste. of poaching. News W HAT’S

CONSERVATION GENETICS PLANT CONSERVATION REPRODUCTIVE SCIENCES DISEASE INVESTIGATIONS We received the body of As part of the California Using ultrasound, we We are investigating the the last known Rabb’s Rare Plant Rescue visualized ovaries of the relationship between polar fringe-limbed tree Initiative, we successfully female southern white bear habitat change and frog and processed the collected seeds from rhinos housed at the exposure to pathogens samples under multiple the imperiled Dunn’s Safari Park’s Nikita Kahn over time in order to gain conditions in an effort mariposa lily, a showy Rhino Rescue Center a better understanding to preserve the genetic herbaceous perennial throughout the reproductive of disease threats and material in the Frozen bulb with bell-shaped cycle and used this information contribute to improved Zoo® of this now extinct white to pinkish flowers. to induce ovulation with management decisions. Panamanian species. hormone treatments.

THE SCIENCE OF

EDITOR: Mary Sekulovich | GRAPHIC DESIGN: Studio 318 | PHOTOGRAPHER: Ken Bohn © 2017 San Diego Zoo Global. All rights reserved.