ZZ: Does She or Doesn’t She?

It’s been such fun to watch our baby panda boy grow and develop here at the San Diego Zoo, and no one can deny that babies with milk moustaches of any species are beyond cute! But with five pandas in residence, a lot goes on here day to day. Everyone is thriving, including Gao and the “Sister Act,” Su Lin and Zhen Zhen. The girls have been charming visitors in the viewing area since just after breeding season, and over these last few weeks especially we’ve had lots of visitors from all over the world as so many American families are in back-to-school mode. The crowds have lessened, the weather is cooling off, and ZZ and Su Lin are doing just fine.But what of ZZ? The panda narrators are watching and listening carefully to verify what we’ve heard, but it appears that the girl, when in a contended play mode, will hum! Not a tune, just a single, short note at random times. At least two of us have heard it, and I’ve tried to sternly catch the eye of the visitors who must be doing this, but no, it’s not been visitors. It’s intriguing, since it seems unlike any other vocalization that we panda narrators have heard Zhen make, regardless of the season, and seems to occur only during calm times. You’ll recall that most panda vocalizations are made during the rare times that pandas are together: mother-and-cub, breeding season, or when they come across one another unexpectedly in the wild. Otherwise, there’s no one around to hear them talk, so they don’t.This is a fun new “trick” for ZZ to do to us narrators, as apparently no one else has heard her “hum.” This is understandable, since the pandas are always actively interested in their keepers and their activities, and the researchers have been focusing their work on Bai Yun and the cub. It is panda narrators who sit near the bears for extended hours each day and are more likely to note something quiet, rare, and subtle. Are we hearing from Zhen Zhen what we think we’re hearing? Like giant pandas, we’ll keep a sharp ear and try to gather more information.Ellie Rosenbaum is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.sourec: http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org