Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria

Written by Eveline Dungl

On March 14th 2003 a young pair of Giant Pandas arrived at the Viennese zoo ‘Tiergarten Schönbrunn’. Yang Yang and Long Hui were born in 2000, the year of the dragon, in the ‘China Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda’ in Wolong, Sichuan province. The animals are on loan to the Republic of Austria by the People's Republic of China for a period of 10 years.

Says zoo director and WWF president Austria Helmut Pechlaner: "The charismatic Pandas are the ideal ambassadors of China. They come to Austria as a gesture of friendship and will not only generate interest for this vast and mysterious country, but will also promote global nature conservation for the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). The enthusiasm that these symbolic creatures will trigger in the zoo's guests and friends will serve as a vehement reminder of all the fascinating creatures that are threatened with extinction by the human race."

Keeper Staff
The Panda staff in the Viennese zoo consists of five keepers. Their daily routine includes the cleaning of the enclosures, feeding the animals, medical training, weighing of the bears and choosing and applying enrichment items. To have control over changes in the bears’ habits, a protocol sheet is written every day. Another aspect of the keepers’ responsibilities is providing information for the visitors on info boards and during commented feedings.

Food
Around 50 to 60 kg of bamboo are fed to Yang Yang and Long Hui every day. Six to eight different bamboo species come from a bamboo plantation in southern France every other week. The bamboo is stored cool (~ 6°C) and wet and stays quite fresh till the next delivery comes. In one or two years additional bamboo from a new plantation in southern Austria will be incorporated.

Besides bamboo only small amounts of pellets and vegetables are fed.

Enclosures
The panda enclosure consists of an inside enclosure 135 m and an outside enclosure 1128 m in size. Five further cages with an average size of 5.5 m are out of visitors’ sight and are used for medical training, cognitive experiments and hopefully for giving birth to a baby Panda.

To give the pandas various possibilities for natural behaviour, their enclosure is very diverse and well structured. There are three ponds, a stream course, trees and bushes, numerous wooden platforms, three earth and wooden dens, climbing structures made of thick tree trunks, rocks and earth hills in the outside enclosure. The inside enclosure is also arranged with climbing structures, platforms, rocks and a wooden den. To have the possibility to separate the bears if necessary, the whole enclosure is divided into two parts with a glass wall. At the moment all parts are accessible for both pandas.

To protect the pandas from dry and hot summer days, a fog system was installed in the outside enclosure and the house can be cooled with three air conditioners.

Enrichment
Several enrichment items have already been tested with pandas. Other than haystacks only Yang Yang, the female Panda, shows interest in new objects, plays with them or tries to get the food pieces out of them. A boomer ball, paper sacks or carton rolls filled with hay and pellets and haystacks have been offered.

Also different odours and small amounts of honey were attached on stones and tree trunks in the inside enclosure. The bears mostly ignored it.

Training for medical care
To make medical checks easier and stress-free for the vets as well as for the pandas some of the keepers train the bears regularly. They are used to strike certain positions like standing upright, lying on the side, lying on the back, standing on all fours or sitting down. Therefore it is easy to take the body temperature, to make an ultrasound or to x-ray. Opening the mouth for dental checks or reaching the paws for claws and pad control also is no problem.

Research
Topics of study include:

1. Development of the male and female gonad in giant pandas with non invasive methods
2. Occurrence of stress related hormones in the faeces of Giant Pandas dependent on different situations
3. Giant Pandas’ visual abilities
4. Food intake
5. Behavioural observations

Visit the website for the Viennese zoo ‘Tiergarten Schönbrunn’ at http://www.zoovienna.at/e/index.html