The three lionesses arrived at the zoo from Japan in 2000. They have given birth to 22 cubs in the past two years.

Zoo spokesman He Zhihua told China Daily: "We are sad and sorry to limit the contact of the six lions in heat because we do not want to use contraceptives as that will harm their health."

It costs about 100 yuan (US$12) a day to feed and raise one lion.

The zoo does not have a large enough budget this year to cover any possible increase in its lion population as a result of the sharp decline in visitor numbers in the past two months because of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

"We have to save money to nurse the animals we already have," said He.

The "ascetic" life of the six lions in the Wuhan zoo is symptomatic of the problems encountered by keepers in some 180 public zoos in China's towns and cities.

While people are saying goodbye to gauze masks, zookeepers are still figuring out ways to entice visitors back to their zoos.

Struggling in plight

The number of zoo visitors in China fell by more than 90 per cent between April and mid-May.

That period was the time when SARS peaked and when even zookeepers were fearful of an outbreak of the virus among the animals they carefully nursed.

Across the country, the keepers took a series of emergency preventive measures and their efforts paid off.

The latest survey showed that, as of the end of May, there had been no reports of animal SARS cases in zoos in the 23 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions struck by SARS, according to Li Cuihua, an official with the National Association of Zoos. No keepers contracted SARS.

Meanwhile, public zoos have continued trying out new ways to improve the welfare of their animals, said Zhang Jinguo, deputy director of Beijing Zoo.

"We are trying to liberate the animals from their lives in cages," Zhang said.

Public zoos have also tried to let some kinds of animals live collectively in communities and in an environment closer to their natural habitat.

Despite the SARS-induced slowdown, Beijing Zoo still intends to invest 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) this year to build new homes for its animals.

During the period from April 20 to May 25, Shanghai Wildlife Zoo saw 230 newborn animals from 22 different species.

Wuhan Municipal Zoo, which has an animal population of more than 4,000, will have to increase expenditure by nearly 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) for the summer, He Zhihua said.

However, widespread talk about coronaviruses being found in both animals and human beings has made many parents reluctant to take their children to zoos.

As a result, in April and May, when SARS hit the capital the hardest, Beijing Zoo saw its revenue reduced by more than 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) compared with those two months last year, said Zhang Jinguo, the deputy director.

Zhang said it costs about 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) a day to maintain the normal running of the zoo, which has a population of 7,000 animals from 600 species - "even when there is not a single visitor."

At the same time, additional money has been spent on preventive measures to ensure that neither visitors nor animals are infected, Zhang added.

According to the booking office of Harbin Zoo in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, ticket sales during this year's May Day holiday fell 90 per cent compared with the same period last year. Sales on International Children's Day (June 1) fell by some 50 per cent.

Even in Xiamen, a quiet coastal city in East China's Fujian Province, there was a sharp decline in the number of visitors to the zoo, even though the province only reported two SARS cases in April.

Zoos across the country are waiting expectantly to see visitors come in droves now the World Health Organization has removed all of the Chinese mainland from its travel advisory and list of SARS-affected areas.

Animals not culprits

Beijing Zoo's Zhang Jinguo said: "Things are getting better and better as more visitors are returning to zoos for entertainment."

But the fear of cross-infection of disease still keeps many potential visitors away from zoos, especially after scientists from South China's Guangdong Province and Hong Kong announced in late May that their research had shown a possible link between the SARS virus and the coronavirus found in the masked palm civet.

Zoo managers have started promotional campaigns, calling for the public to get to grips with the fact that no scientific evidence has been produced up to now to prove that animals - including masked palm civets - transmitted the SARS virus to human beings.

Chen Runsheng, secretary-general of the China Wildlife Conservation Association, said animals are human beings' close friends and "we should not blame animals for SARS or even discriminate against or hate animals."

Even if some wild animals are proved to be the source of SARS one day, people should blame themselves first because killing and eating wildlife is the main way that disease is transmitted between animals and human beings.

People should pay more attention to protecting animals in the wild and in zoos now that SARS is being contained, Zhang Jinguo said. Ideas on animal protection should be put into practice, he noted.

For example, visitors need to do more to keep the environment of zoos clean and they should show more love to every animal around them.

They should not feed zoo animals any food other than that provided by the zoo.

(China Daily June 28, 2003)