Hey, MAK.... first video says ....private.... no can view!!

I don't know why-it worked for me and I have it marked for public viewing. Anybody else have a problem viewing it?  

Same for me MAK.  It says if the 'owner' of this video has granted you access, please log-in.

 

Mei gave birth to a second still born cub last night.  Just woke up to that news.  Cub one continues to do well ... paws crossed for her big time!

Smithsonian's National Zoo
At 7:29 p.m. this evening, Mei Xiang gave birth to a second, stillborn cub. Keepers watching Mei on the panda cam saw her groom it for 17 minutes. When she stopped grooming, it fell from Mei’s body onto the floor of the den. It lay motionless and made no sound. Throughout, staff could see it visually and hear the first cub squealing, and Mei never set it down. Staff retrieved the motionless cub with a grabbing device. It was immediately evident that the cub had developmental abnormalities and wasn’t fully formed. It was never alive. A necropsy is underway, and the Zoo will provide additional information tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Mei's first cub continues to do well.

I've got my paws crossed for her!! 

Welcome back to the Cams Miss B! 

You may have noticed in most of the photos of the cubs in the incubator, they are resting their heads on a “pillow�. This pillow is really a small bean bag and both cubs seem to like using it. If we are close to a swap time and the cub is hungry, it may take a couple of tries to calm them, but the bean bag seems to do the trick every time!

Heather Roberts, Keeper III

  Yay and double yay for Carol's last tweet   


WanderingFalcon (Carol P.): Watching from BSB. I agree all 3 juvies. Wonderful!

Thursday, August 15
Heather weighed Lun Lun today for the first time since the twins were born. Lun Lun weighed 108 kg. This was surprising to Heather and me. We expected her to weigh about 100 kg. That is the weight we normally try to have Lun Lun maintain. As we have been reporting for weeks, she hasn’t been eating much since the last three weeks of her pregnancy. She did look thin the week after the cubs were born. But her appetite has picked up and she has been eating better. So, I expected that she would have regained the weight she lost and be close to her normal weight of 100 kg. Boy, was I wrong. She’s a bit heavier than we normally allow. I’m actually quite happy about that, though. It’s great that she is above her normal weight while nursing twins. It’s an indication that she is keeping up well with the cubs’ demand for milk. We increased her diet when she had her previous cubs and allowed her weight to increase. We have increased even more this time, because of the twins. It seems to be working!

Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Mammals

That's wild! How come they hang out together and don't fight for the territory? 

Are they all juvies?

Yes they are all this year's juvies.  One of them is from Bev's site at U of A, some from Weber (Miss Edmonton had 5 hatches this year!!) and others were rescues from local area nests.  Falcons are still endangered out that way to they've been hacking some every year in remote locations hoping they'll come back and nest in the area when they grow up.  Juvies are very social compared to adults, they might bicker over food like siblings but otherwise they are fine with each other.

The real deal!! 8 falcons!!

That"s in Alberta.  Bev posted it for us yesterday after Gord sent it to her.  They're looking to repopulate the natural cliff sites in the wild with falcons I believe.  This is the description she attached with the photo.

These are some of the many falcons that were hacked at Pembina. there is a falconer there 24 hours a day monitoring them, to make sure they do well and to feed them. He swam the river last year to help one.( 1 is from Bell, 1 from Edmonton university, 1 is one we rescued at weber and 2 others are from Weber and then some are from other sites that di d not do well andsome are form breeders. they will be going along the river in 2015 to see how many are nesting

What do 1-month-old panda sleepyheads dream about? Mommy? Eating? Mommy? Eating? Mommy and Eating? Thanks to Keeper Jen Webb for a photo we like to call "Portrait of an Untroubled Life" -- Cub B. snoozing while Cub A. takes his turn with Mom.

Panda Updates
Wednesday, August 14

Now that the cubs are a month old, everyone is taking a small breath. The cubs are still quite vulnerable and fragile, but they’ve passed the 1 kilogram mark so we’re all very happy. Staffing has shifted a bit as well! Deng Tao used to work during the day, helping to care for the cubs and sharing his vast knowledge of cub rearing. While he slept in the den adjacent to Lun’s nesting den, the overnight crew consisted of a vet and a nursery keeper. Now that the cubs are a month old, Deng and the vets have swapped shifts: Deng now works overnight while a vet is here during the day. Even better is that Deng now feels comfortable enough to sleep outside the building! This new arrangement is very beneficial a our vet staff now have more time to take care of the other more than 1,500 critters here at Zoo Atlanta. The cubs and Lun are clueless, obviously. They are still getting round-the-clock care and attention so their world hasn’t changed one bit.

Jen W.
Keeper I, Carnivores

Tuesday, August 13

The cub swaps have been going really well since the twins were a few days old, but they have become even better lately. Lun Lun now regularly shifts away from the cub she has. While she is away, the door between the dens is closed. We enter the den that contains the nest box to remove one cub and place the other cub in the nest box. Then the door between the dens is opened. When Lun Lun is finished eating in the adjacent den, she goes straight to the nest box to pick up the cub. We are still doing the swaps approximately every four hours.

Rebecca Snyder, PhD
Curator of Mammals

it is probably easier to ask a Peregrine Falcon to relocate and hopefully find a new mate in a different habitat than it is to educate a human populace that, for the most part, does not possess the attention span required to learn how to live peacefully with a very beautiful and territorial bird. In order to understand wildlife you must first appreciate it. Unfortunately this appreciation is sorely lacking in the general public.

Amen!  Great post, sounds like she had the best care possible.

As the falcon turns continues:

The band number on this bird is confirmed as solid black O over 8 and is a three character band.  These bands that have a line dividing the upper and lower characters have not been used in a long time but last year, 2012, one was applied to a male chick at the William Osler Hospital and yellow tape was placed over the USFW band.  This is Ossie from the 2012 nesting season of Hurricane and Chessie at William Osler!

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/2013/08/sightings/mississauga-north-male-positively-identified/

The black over green female was not seen today at either location. Hmmmm!

That end of the city is really busy in terms of falcons it seems...and keep in mind that Sante is single now too, well last time anyone checked so that is another open spot just waiting for a female.  Hopefully once they finish playing musical nests - we'll have a few good pairs set up for next year.