Mei Xiang is also sweet, but different. Every day for the past week, Powell has collected feces and urine samples from the pair, a task that will continue once the pandas reach Washington. By analyzing hormone levels in the waste, scientists hope to judge how much stress is caused by putting pandas on an airplane and moving them to a new environment. Zoo scientists also plan to study several dozen captive pandas in China reserves, including Wolong, which has more captive pandas than anywhere else, 43. They also will look at whether mating success stems from how zoos care for their animals.
Pandas are difficult to breed in captivity, and scientists want to learn how to increase success.
They also hope to learn more about wild pandas by studying captive ones. Working with a Chinese graduate student, Powell hopes to have some recommendations for zoos by 2002. Although Wolong has some enclosures that are plain and bare, the center has done very well at breeding its animals, and National Zoo officials want to know why. Powell said his first visit to Wolong will help him design the survey of how zoos care for their animals. He learned that Wolong rotates its animals through its seven large forested enclosures shortly before breeding season.