Three US zoos – Zoo Atlanta, Memphis Zoo and San Diego Zoo – are planning to renegotiate with the Chinese government to reduce the cost of renting pandas. "If no agreement with China can be made, the zoos may have to return their star attractions" Dennis W. Kelly, chief executive of Zoo Atlanta, was quoted as saying in the New York Times this week.

 

Tai Shan, a Chinese giant panda cub, plays with bamboo at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C of the United State, Dec. 1, 2005. Tai Shan was five-month old then and weighed 21-pound.(file photo)

 

Susan Elliott, press officer at Zoo Atlanta, confirmed the story this Wednesday, saying "The zoos now are planning to renegotiate with China about reducing the rent. We also read this in the newspapers," said Liu Xiongying, of the State Forestry Administration's press office. "However, we have not received any formal request from the United States, and so we cannot comment on the matter yet. The three zoos are all currently experiencing financial difficulties. They have to pay one million dollars annually for renting the pandas and another million for financing research and conservation projects in the United States and in China. If cubs are born, the annual fee increases by an average of US$ 600,000."

 

The zoos have also hired specialist staff to care for the pandas and have to spend a great deal of money to cover the animals' daily living expenses. Zoo Atlanta has a curator, three full-time keepers and one backup keeper to care for Lun Lun and Yang Yang, their two pandas. A crew of six travels around Georgia six days a week, harvesting bamboo from 400 volunteers who grow it in their backyards. Each of the pandas requires an expensive diet including 84 pounds of bamboo a day.

 

"The pandas are certainly famous in the United States. People will get up in the middle of the night to see the pandas," said Don Lindburg, head of the giant panda program at San Diego Zoo. "I don't think there is a comparable animal. However, after the first year, the number of people coming to see the pandas declined yet the expense of keeping them remained high."

 

A staff member at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, China's main panda breeding and conservation center, confirmed that all the pandas in foreign countries were rented.

 

The contract between the American zoos and the Chinese side is a ten year deal. The San Diego Zoo's contract is the first to expire in 2008 and the last on tract, with Memphis Zoo, will end in 2013.

 

Mr. Kelley said that he hoped China would consider the request to reduce the fees as most other countries pay far less for their pandas. He said that Australia and Thailand paid about US$ 300,000 each year for their pandas.

 

However, the National Zoo in Washington, another American zoo that has rented pandas from China, said that it would not join the three zoos in pursuing this issue. Their spokesperson, Peper Long, told the Oriental Morning Post that the statement from Zoo Atlanta did not represent their attitude.

 

The birth of the cub Tai Shan has brought a flood of visitors to the National Zoo. "There is no doubt that Tai Shan has attracted crowds to the zoo. However, our zoo is a non-governmental organization; we do not charge for entry. We have been losing money in renting the two pandas," said Long. Long said the zoo wanted to help protect pandas, a highly endangered species.

 

(Beijing Today February 20, 2006)