Zachary Steele dives headfirst into the Stereotypic study and quickly finds a favorite panda- Wu Gang. Come hear what he has to say.
It has been an eventful first week here in Ya’an, specifically today. From a two hour bus ride delayed by some insane roadwork, to arriving at the base to find out that we had to switch up our entire plan today, it seemed like today might be all for naught. However, a last second adjustment and a decision to visit my favorite panda (yes I have a favorite already) quickly changed morale. This panda I’m referring to is of course Wu Gang.
Wu Gang is a male here at the base and just has an atmosphere to him that is a mixture of intimidating and intriguing at the same time (if that’s possible). Him being my favorite also has a lot to do with his name because my goodness that’s an awesome name. Anyways, we attempted to conduct a stereotypic study on Wu Gang and all went smoothly at first. Wu Gang munched on various treats and bamboo but today was just not meant for anything to go as planned. Not far into the study we were interrupted by some shifting of the bears and unfortunately had to cut the study short for the morning.
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- Looking for Shu Qin
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- Munching on bamboo
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- A popular resting pose
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- Getting used to Tong Tong’s marks
In the afternoon we discovered Wu Gang had been shifted to a new area and this led to a very interesting study session. The previous inhabitant of the area was Tong Tong, another male panda at the base, and due to this Wu Gang spent a large portion of the session attempting to get rid of the old scent of Tong Tong. To accomplish this, Wu Gang displayed plenty of sniffing around to identify areas to scent mark and would also drag whatever part of his body he possible could over the old smell. Wu Gang was also very interested in his new neighbors, Mei Xi and Shu Qin, two females, surely a pleasant surprise for Wu Gang. After a majority of the session was spent investigating and marking his new space, Wu Gang finally wore himself out and spent the remainder in some very odd sleeping positions. Definitely a great way to end an otherwise strange and unpredictable day!
I’m Zachary Steele, and if you have any questions about Wu Gang or the Stereotypic study, please leave a comment. Cheers!
Would you describe Wu Gang’s stereotypical behavior. How often does he display it? What exactly does your study consist of?
Hey Charlene, that’s a great question and I don’t know how familiar you are with stereotypical behavior but essentially that means a repetitive function that can be extremely simple or highly complex and doesn’t accomplish any noticeable goal of the organism; meaning it’s completely random until captured and clarified as stereotypic. With Wu Gang stereotypic behaviors as simple as a pattern in vocalizations have been observed but also detailed pacing patterns have also been noted. To define these patterns our study consists of observational sessions in which each bear at the base is monitored for a specific duration, usually an hour, and behaviors are recorded paying close attention for repetition of certain behaviors to form a stereotype. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!
Wu Gang is a great bear. Is he easy to work with?
Hey Stevi! Wu Gang is a great bear and yes he definitely makes our study sessions enjoyable! All the bears at the base display different behaviors and have personality and Wu Gang definitely has his own way of going about things that makes him a very interesting and entertaining bear. Thanks for reading the post and if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask!
Thank you for your response, Steele. I wondered… what is the goal of the study? To identify different stereotypical behaviors? Or is there an interest in mitigating these behaviors in the future?
I find it interesting that wild born pandas who were rescued as cubs like Wu Gang and Bai Yang display stereotypical behaviors. I watched Bai Yang one day recently and while he made a large circuit around his yard, he would stop every now and then and swivel his head, then continue on until he did it again.
Hi Charlene,
The goal of our stereotypic study is to determine if different stereotypies contribute to predicting reproductive success. We monitor each bear twice a month, every month- once in the AM & once in the PM. This allows us to effectively track stereotypes throughout the year. We are currently working on publishing some of this data and would gladly speak more about this work over email.
Here is my contact info: nate@pdxwildlife.com
You said that Wu Gang is now next to Shu Qin. Does she still have her daughter (born July 16/16) with her?
Thanks for the update on the Gangster. I miss having our cameras (explore.org) at Bifengxia. He is one of my favourites also.
Hi Lee,
I’ll get you that information tomorrow after we get back to the base. Stay tuned.
Thanks for the question.
Hi Lee,
Bifengxia is scrambling to get the base ready for a tourism inspection and it is making bear locations a full-time job to figure out who is who. However, Shu Qin was (as of yesterday) located at IPP1 or the International Panda Park and her cub was doing very well. I could only see the cub through the outside shift door, but Mom was anxiously waiting to get back inside. With any luck, I might be able to get a photo of the two in the near future, but no promises.
Stay in touch-
Thank you for your reply Nathan. So happy that Shu Qin and her cub are still together.