I wonder why our pandas are never rotated. The other North American zoos which house them switch things up and move them around every couple of months just to keep things interesting for them.
I have never seen him on this side of the exhibit before today. I thought he never moved away from his pool!
I agree that rotating the pandas would be a good idea because Er Shun's outdoor exhibit is much smaller than this one. It's possible that she feels more comfortable in her current exhibit and the zoo would rather not move her.
And if Er Shun is pregnant I wouldnt expect her to be moved around until the cub is probably a year or so old.
I can see leaving Da Mao where he is now because he is likely going to be the only panda on exhibit most of the summer when Er Shun dens up with either a pregnancy or pseudo pregnancy.
But come a cub it would be better to have it on exhibit in the big yard but Er Shun never having been over there wouldnt be comfortable with that. Especially with Da Mao's scent all over the place. They probably should have introduced it to her over the winter so it could be used as a cub yard down the line.
I've seen Er Shun in the big exhibit once and that was recently. I believe that when they first arrived last year, she was given access to it as well. I don't think its a matter of the keepers not switching them, but rather that Er Shun does better in the smaller exhibit (e.g. eating, stereotypical behaviours) and they don't want to give her added stress.
This is the first time I've ever heard that she had been in the big exhibit and that she had ever had access to it. If it was recently then they probably are trying to expose her so they can put a cub in there with her once its old enough to go on display outside.
