common work in The San Diego Zoo Panda Team

An Enduring Conservation Legacy: The San Diego Zoo Panda Team 

Successful and enduring conservation inherently demands that a cross-disciplinary team approach be implemented. So, once I reminisce at the San Diego Zoo’s panda Conservation Program, I can say without hesitation that when—more than 25 years ago—San Diego Zoo CEO Doug Myers and, former panda program head, Don Lindburg forged a team-centric strategy for our efforts, they set us up for fulfillment . Through the persistent efforts of scientists, animal care, and public outreach specialists, the San Diego Zoo panda Team dedicated itself to improving the plight of giant pandas through the appliance of scientific findings to panda management, and interesting the general public within the plight of this once-endangered conservation icon. 

From a scientific perspective, we’ve had an unparalleled opportunity to review this rare and elusive bear to A level of detail rarely experienced in wildlife science. and thru our long-term collaboration with the panda team in China, we’ve been ready to extend our studies to the panda breeding center at Wolong and beyond—to the study of untamed giant pandas. Our long-term studies of the panda’s behavior and physiology have given us important insights into the wants for successful reproduction, maternal care and foraging—key elements of individual survival and population sustainability. 

In 1996 when the enormous pandas first received the San Diego Zoo, the species was considered Endangered within the wild, and with fewer than 1,600 left on the earth , conservation breeding efforts were the main target of a broader initiative to develop the capacity to supplement the wild population of pandas. However, there have been many challenges to successful breeding under human care, and that we worked with our colleagues in China and with other panda holding zoos to deal with these. 

This process of collaborative problem solving resulted during a rich exchange of experience , because the panda breeding became more successful. Twin swapping greatly increased the survival rate of panda cubs, as did the event of a far better infant formula. Reproductive success was also increased by integrating a more biologically based approach to breeding management, incorporating scientific findings from studies of courtship communication and behavior. Physiological research illuminated the dynamics of estrus and pregnancy and supported enhanced capacity for the appliance of artificial reproductive techniques when necessary. Indeed, the primary panda cub born at the San Diego Zoo—Hua Mei—was conceived through AI . She was also the primary panda cub born within the us to survive to adulthood and has gone on to supply 11 cubs of her own in China! to mention we are proud, is an irony . 

With the return of Bai Yun, Gao Gao, and Xiao Liwu to China and therefore the conclusion of our current panda loan agreement, it's clear that an era has come to an end. However, our panda conservation work continues, and continued efforts to use scientific study to develop enduring conservation management strategies for the enormous panda and its habitat will continue. We are not any less dedicated to the survival the panda within the wild than we were 25 years ago. While we will say confidently that there's now HOPE for the survival of the enormous panda, we all know that continued efforts are necessary, which our international, multi-disciplinary, team approach remains the thanks to go. Our work continues. 

There is no getting round the incontrovertible fact that we'll all miss having giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo. Personally, I even have been lucky enough to figure in close proximity to them for quite 22 years then am at a touch of a loss imagining my day-to-day work life without having the ability to ascertain m outside my office window to see Bai Yun and her family. Things will really vary round the panda Research Station within the near future, but with countless shared memories of panda milestones big and little , we are pleased with the various individuals that are a neighborhood of our panda-family (including the thousands - perhaps millions - of panda-supporters from round the world) and excited for the longer term .