Red Pandas (the Cutest Animals on the Planet?) - The Wild Life

Oh hi there. I'm camouflaged in bamboo looking for some red pandas. Do you guys see any? Yeah, I mean neither not yet, but they're around here. I'm very excited today because we're at Zoo Knoxville. We're going to talk about the red pandas and if they're anything like me, they're your favorite animal. I mean what's not to like? They're cute, check. They're cuddly, check. Actually, I don't know if we can cuddle. We may have to check on that. Did you know that they're endangered? Even though they get a lot of love, they still need our help, which is why we're here today. We're here to talk to somebody like Sarah Glass, who is an expert at red pandas, and she keeps them alive and thriving. Let's not keep the pandas or Sarah waiting. Come on. I've got a panda to red pandas. They're pretty cool. Get it? Pan? Panda? Here are the facts. Red pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. They're the cutest animals on the planet. Don't believe me? Google it. Red pandas are adapted carnivores. Red pandas are endangered. There are as few as 2,500 red pandas left in the wild. Hi. Hi, Sarah. Come on in. Come on in. This is the panda bodega, right? Is that what you call it? It's the panda building. The panda building. This is where all the panda stuff happens. This is incredible in here. It feels nice and cool, but I'm not here to critique your interior design skills. But why is this room not red? It was supposed to be bamboo green. No worries. Bamboo green. I'm excited. Tell me what's first. Okay, so we need to go pick up their food, and then we need to open up one of the exhibits. Oh, yes. Let's do it. Come on. Following you. I'm going to make you carry some heavy stuff. Good thing I'm super strong. Oh, here we go. Oh, yeah. There you go. You weren't kidding. So, yeah. So, they get a basic diet of a leaf eater biscuit. You'll notice it says primate diet on here. Okay. So, this is the same thing like our chimps and gorillas get. Leaf eater biscuits. Leaf eater biscuits. Just pop them right down over here. All right. Okay, and now we will go unlock Lincoln. Those keys make you feel powerful, don't they? Yeah. Fun part is you can actually tell who's who around the zoo by the jingle of their keys. We get used to it. It's a status sign. It is. Right away, I see somebody up there. Who's that? That's Lincoln. He's been here since he was about three months old. So, he's one of our longest residents. He enjoys staying by himself, napping, eating snacks. Oh, my god. That's pretty much his life. He's so cute. It actually kind of hurts. He's our poofiest panda. Do you ever get used to the cuteness or no? You do. You still know they're the best. I'm not there yet. So, you've got Lincoln in here. This is kind of open though, Sarah. Do they get out? They do not. We did have one younger panda who figured out how to climb out. So, we had to move him over, but this has been designed so that it could be an open exhibit without this portion if need be. So, this portion is more to keep things from getting in with him than him coming over here. They're terrible jumpers. They're excellent climbers, which is why we have the plexiglass, but for the most part, they really want nothing to do with people. So, there's no desire for him to... We don't mean anything to him. So, Sarah, what are we going to do today? What's the plan? So, we're going to do our basic morning routine. We're going to go in, pick up the old bamboo. You can see there's old bamboo here. Scoop some poop, which of course is a mainstay. I'm a poop scoop master. And get their food together, and then we may do a little training later. All right. That sounds like a fun-filled day. Let's get started. All right. Let's do it. First thing we're going to do is go ahead and feed Asa because she's the most demanding. Asa says she's hungry. She says she's hungry. So, we brought our biscuit bags in. Those are actually going to be for later. Okay. So, this is our open biscuits, and this is where our bag biscuits live. So, these guys get what we call free feed. So, we want them to have a little left at the end of the day. So, in order to treat her just a little bit, she likes a little dash of apple juice. Oh, little diva. So, we give her a little apple juice, and then we have some fruit that we prepped the day before. She likes bananas. Okay. Her favorite. So, she gets her bananas and her apples and her grapes. So, we're going to take this and put it in there for her. I mean, it's literally like panda cereal. All right. So, if you want to take that. Okay. If you can grab that shovel that's right over there for me. This black shovel right here? Yep. Shovel. Pandas have small poops, so we have a small shovel. All right. You can just pop that shovel in there. All right, Asa. Okay, guys. I got my bucket. I got my shovel. We all know what that means. It's time to clean up some poop. Pandas are nice, and they tend to be latrine poopers. So, usually going to go in the same place every day. It's like a litter box. Like a litter box, except we put the litter box where they choose to go, as opposed to the other way around, if that makes sense. That does make sense. Well, what happened if you moved the litter box? They just wouldn't go? No, they just keep going in the same spot. I see. So, and you've probably done this before, but we look at the poop to make sure everything looks good. Right. So, if you look at this poop here, you can tell she's had a lot of bamboo. Oh. So, pandas, everything they eat comes out in four hours, because technically they're a carnivore. Right. So, we can see if she's eating things she ought not by actually looking at her poop. So, if I were to feed her bamboo, and then fruit, and then biscuits, she would actually produce feces that are like partially bamboo, partially fruit, partially biscuit, like a Neapolitan poop. A Neapolitan poop. Oh my gosh, the science of poop is insane. You said they were carnivores? Do they actually eat meat in the wild? They could. They could. So, they have the same gut system and the same tooth structure as a carnivore would have, and they don't have a cecum to break down leafy material like we even have a So, they've been known to like maybe catch a mouse or a bird, but they can live without it. They're really just designed to eat massive amounts of bamboo. So, everything in out in four hours, like a carnivore, spend a lot of time eating a lot of time. All right. Well, what should I do with this poop? We can go ahead and put that out there, and then we will gather up the old bamboo. How are you at division? Division? Uh-huh. I'm so, so bad at math, but I think I can handle some bamboo division. All right. You want to separate that into four roughly equal piles. Okay. Let's do it. Zookeeping and math. Where does the bamboo come from? So, we have reserves here on ground that we can draw on, but actually a lot of it comes from the neighborhoods. A lot of times folks, neighbors will plant bamboo, not think about how it's going to spread, and it takes over their neighbor's yard, and so then we get a call to come get it. So, we have several locations around town that we collect from, and then the commissary stores it for us, and then we also have patches around the building where we can cut big bamboo for these guys, if we want to give them a little fresh enrichment. All right. What do you think about that? Four? That looks perfect. Now grab whichever, whichever one pleases you. We're going to give one of these bundles to Asa. Oh, Asa, you get this one right here, buddy. Yeah, zookeeping is fun on the knees. So, you want to come in here. They get bamboo twice a day, so what we do is take out the old bamboo, okay, and then you are free to scatter that around anywhere you like. All right. Hey, Sarah. Yes. What does a ghost red panda say? I'm afraid to find out. Bamboo. All right. How's this? Good? That looks good. One final thing. Everybody always wants fresh water. Fresh water. You want to grab that bowl, and we're going to take it to the sink, give it a quick scrub, and then refill it. All right. The joys of being a zookeeper. This is looking good. That looks perfect. She's ready. You'd like to go ahead and open it up for her. Just this handle right here. Just pull it down. Okay. There she goes, straight for her bananas. Asa pretty much believes that bananas are life. Bananas are life. Oh, she yawned again. Oh, my gosh. They remind me of Pokemon. They're the closest actual animal Pokemon in existence, I think. All right. What's next? So, everyone else needs breakfast. Okay. So, what we're going to do, these guys over here, we have Gansu and Dufa, who are our pair. First, you always want to check where they are. Since they are both outside, we're going to go ahead and shut this. This is their den. Okay. And as you will see, they pretty much trashed it overnight. But we can go ahead and actually give them their extra bits as well, if you want to, while they're out there. So, we're going to give them something a little bit extra this morning. So, those biscuits that we had. So, we can take the biscuit powder and mix it with apple juice and mashed banana and apple. And we can make this sort of biscuit mash, which they love. It's kind of like grape nuts. And this is a favorite for both Asa and Dufa. Well, can I humanize it? Sure, if you want to. I've got to try it, right? Can I use a spoon? You can use a spoon. It's a chunk of apple, is that what that is? Yes. Yeah, there is no, there are no meat products in this. You're good to go. I mean, it's not, I'm going in for seconds. No, I'm not going for seconds. It's not bad. It tastes like health food. It's not bad. Probably should put this in here though. It's, you know, you feel like you've eaten something that's good for your body after, which isn't always the tastiest. It's a little, it's a little grainy and it tastes like dirt with an apple in it. All right, lead the way. Hi, how are you? Here we go. So, we're just going to put these down here and they will come down and get them at their leisure. Whenever you're ready, guys. So, Sarah, tell me where would we find these guys in the wild? So, they are found in Northern India, up through Nepal, Bhutan, up into China. So, they kind of go up and then around the edge of the Himalayas and up to China. So, there's two subspecies or species, depending on which biologist you talk to at the time. There's the Alluris fulgens fulgens, which is what we have, which is sort of the Nepalese Northern Indian panda. And then we have the Chinese red panda, which is Alluris fulgens stiani or a Stian's red panda. And they are a little bit bigger and darker. Are they related to the giant pandas at all? So, only by name. So, they, these guys were discovered 1923 or 1823, 1824, depending on who you believe. Back then, whoever published first was the one who got credit. And I always love when they say discovered because I'm sure the people who live there were like, why are you so excited? I see them every day. So, they were just named panda and they think it comes from a native term, Nagalya Panya, which means bamboo footed. And so, Panya may have worked into panda. And then 50 years later, they discovered the giant panda, which originally was called a party colored bear because it was partly black and partly white. And then once they started looking at these two, they saw they had very similar digestive systems and thumbs and they ate the same thing. And they said, aha, this is a giant panda. And they made this the lesser panda. And then about 20 years ago, they put these guys in their own family, Aluridae, and put giant pandas with bears. Well, they're definitely not lesser to us. So, they are, they are the original. If anyone's like, they're the OG. Why doesn't Knoxville have real ones? I'm like, yeah, these are the OG. And they're looking at us like, will you please leave so I can eat my food? And last, but certainly not least, we had to feed Lincoln, who was patiently awaiting his meal. A little food, a little enrichment, and a little bamboo, and Lincoln was ready to take on his day of napping. One quick pit stop to prep food for the next day, where we learned Lincoln only likes crisp, red, delicious apples. And then we were off to meet Laura for a bit of afternoon training. All right, so who is this? This is Dufa. Dufa? Hi, Dufa. All right, so how often do you guys do this weight training? Usually at least once a week. Bye, Dufa. Come here, Dufa. Oh, I think we're having a bathroom break. Oh, bathroom break? So, his weight will be less. So, what are you looking for in the weight? Basically, just for it to be consistent. If it's breeding season, or getting close past breeding season towards cubbing season, we'll watch for some weight gain in the girls. But usually with the boys, it's just to make sure they're about the same weight all the time. Right. How many babies do they have? They can have one to four, but usually they have two. Two. Hi. Want to get up on here? How small are the little babies when they come? They're tiny. They're about the size of a Twinkie. They're usually about 100 grams. Oh my gosh, little Twinkie babies. How much does a red panda weigh? They usually weigh about 15 pounds-ish. Gotcha. Give or take. Ganzu's really tiny. Lincoln, on the other end, he weighs a good bit more than she does. But they're so fluffy that it's hard to really tell there's much of a difference. They are so fluffy. Is it a challenge to train them? It depends on the personality of each of the pandas. Lincoln is not very food-motivated. He doesn't really have many favorite treats. He's pretty particular about his food. Asa, she usually loves to eat. Right. So she's been a lot easier to train. Ganzu's usually pretty good. This year, for some reason, she's been kind of off. Doofa's usually pretty good as well. He just, he likes to eat. What other training do you do besides weight training? We work on, besides the weight, we do crate training. A lot of just panda manners, making sure that they, when we go in, they stay up. So they should be up in the trees whenever we go in to feed them. So a lot of, not necessarily a particular station, but just teaching them to stay up there while we're in-servicing the exhibit. Asa does some other behaviors. She'll target. She'll stand up on her back feet. She'll turn just because she tends to get bored with the usual training. Right. Rate the red pandas for the panda manners. Who has the worst panda manners and who has the best? Doofa has the worst panda manners. Doofa? He's working on them though. The best, Ganzu and Asa, the girls are pretty good with their manners. Lincoln's pretty good. I'd like to think I have pretty good manners too. So now with everyone fed and a little bit of training out of the way, I think it's time we get out of Asa, Doofa, Ganzu and Lincoln's fur. But we know you have a few more questions for Sarah. So I'm so impressed with today, but I've got to ask, and also everyone we asked online has pretty much the same question about the species survival plan. You guys are leading the way in conservation for red pandas. How did you get that status and what does that mean to you? So a little bit of history on it. Okay. We got a little lucky in the beginning. So we got our first pandas in 1977, had our first cubs in 78. And that was technically before SSPs had started. They were kind of around, they were a thought, but it wasn't until the 80s they became official. And Miles Roberts, who was sort of the red panda king guru back at the time, he liked working with smaller zoos because he felt that red pandas, because again, pre-internet, no one knew what they were, that smaller zoos would focus on red pandas because they were something unusual. So we got our first pandas in Dave and Deirdre, or I'm sorry, Buster and Bernice. And they had babies and Bernice actually was not the best mom. So we got a crash course in hand-raising and supplement feeding, which is where you, supplement feeding, they stay with mom, you just feed them. Right. So we unexpectedly became good at hand-raising and mother cub management. So that gave us more pairs and more babies born. So since we started all that, we've had 110 cubs born. My goodness. And so now you're the world leader. So we're, right now we've had the most. Right. For one facility. And because we worked so closely with Miles Roberts, who was the first individual to work He asked us to do the first red panda species survival plan, keeper training workshop. And we just call it the keeper workshop now. Right. And we've been doing that off and on just about every other year since 93. I think it's been all 95. Time gets away from you. For sure. So we sort of fell into some of it. And then once Miles and passed on the torch, then I became the red panda SSP coordinator. So I oversee AZA's population. Gotcha. So, which covers all the Americas and then a couple of zoos in Korea and Hong Kong. Okay. Random little offshoots there. Well, let's talk about these boards over here. Let's talk about these blue dots and pink dots. Our blue dots and pink dots. So I'm a super visual person. Yep. So we're actually getting ready to do our interim planning, which means that we're going to look at the population as a whole and see if the pairings that we put together are still good. They're still good genetic pairings. Or if the needs of zoos have changed. Some zoos want to breed. Some zoos don't want to breed. So this over here represents our Styans population. So there's the two species or subspecies. This is our smaller group. These are our Styans. So each of these squares is a zoo. Okay. That has whole Styans. And then the blues are the boys and the pinks are the girls. Right. And so we start out looking at where everybody is. And then we will evaluate each of those pairs based on their mean kinship and their inbreeding coefficient. Right. Luckily, all of that is done now with a fabulous computer program. We can just punch our pairs in and it tells us what their kids would look like and what it would do to the population. Back in the day, we used index cards and we actually put all the boys here and all the girls here. And then we literally calculated by hand what that would be. That stresses me out. Sounds like it's gotten way easier. It's horrific. Okay. So it's much easier now. Amazing. And then we produce basically a plan. And so in this plan, it lists all of our pandas that are in our population, including globally, because we do work with the Global Species Management Plan for red pandas. And but this is just specific for our region. So who's good with whom and who's going to go where and who begat what. And now it's time to move on to social media questions. Got my handy dandy paper here. Right off the bat. Okay. This is something I want to know. Okay. Kate wants to know, how do I get a snuggle? How do you get to snuggle? I don't recommend actually snuggling with a red panda. Yeah. You saw how well they were climbing. So that's because they've got super sharp claws. So we actually call them little bundles of barbed wire wrapped in fur because they're super lithe and tense under there with really sharp claws and really sharp jaws. So we don't actually come into contact with them unless we're doing some sort of training. Plus, pandas wouldn't like it. Yeah. I mean, spending time with the pandas today, I understand why somebody wants to cuddle them, but I also get like, that's not a good idea. You probably shouldn't do that. We have super fabulous plushies in the gift shop. Go get one of those. Get a plushie in the gift shop. A lot of people asked what their fur feels like. So it actually, a lot of people probably think it feels like a rabbit. A rabbit. I don't know what you thought. Yeah. But they're actually, I call it slickery. So if you've ever, if you've touched a golden retriever and a Labrador retriever. Yeah. I think that's in between that. I think that's 100% accurate. So it's very, very sleek. Yep. Not actually very fluffy. Not very fluffy, very sleek. Joanna515 says, how do they interact with humans? We're their butler. Mm-hmm. You're their butler. So they're solitary by nature. So they're not really going to seek anything out from us unless we have something for them. They're more comfortable with the keepers just because they know us. But you've probably noticed when people come out here, they completely ignore the folks that are outside the exhibit because they know they're not in their space. Right. But yeah, they look to us for stuff, not necessarily for companionship. Speaking of companionship, Susan Kirkpatrick wants to know, do red pandas mate for life? Oh, no. No. No, they wouldn't even stay in pairs. So normally your females all have little regions they hang out in and a male will have a larger region. He will just come in and visit and then he's gone. He wouldn't even know who his kids are. Interesting. All right. So E. Kidder Illustrator wants to know, how do red pandas do in Knoxville's humid climate? Believe it or not, where they're from is actually kind of humid and drippy. So if you were to draw a line around the globe, you would hit their natural area. If you could take them and put them up in the Smokies, that would be ideal. But they actually come from a temperate rainforest as well, so it's kind of humid and drippy and a little bit dense. So the humidity they're kind of okay with. Gotcha. Yeah. Sarah, what can we do today to help red pandas? So the best thing would be to get involved with organizations that help them. So your local zoo, Red Panda Network, which is actually the group that the SSP partners with, because they do all their on-ground work. And then also, I mean, the biggest thing facing wild animals right now is illegal wildlife trade and pet trade. So I know we get a lot of questions like, oh my gosh, pandas are so cute. How can I get one as a pet? It's terrible for a species to sort of fall into that. If people actually started getting these guys as pets, that means that babies are being taken out of the wild, people are poaching them. So just awareness, making sure people know it's the real panda. So awareness, education, and buying a ticket to Zoo Knoxville. That'll help the red pandas. All that would be perfect. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for everything today. I had a blast. And I can't wait to come back and see the red pandas again. Well, appreciate you coming out. All right, thank you. Oh my gosh, you guys, cuteness overload. The only thing that will save me, that will make me better, is if you guys like and subscribe this content. Follow Zoo Knoxville on socials. Leave me a message. Let me know what animal you want to see next. Let me know what weird thing you want me to eat next. I'll do it for you, the people. As always, I'm Brad Carpenter. This is the wildlife. Hey, you're good. No, you're fine. Oh my god, just chilling. Just chilling in there. I like kids and strollers. They're just like, ah.