PANDA PARTICULARS
l Giant Pandas have a black and white coat, with black eye patches and ears which make them very distinctive. Adults can grow to over 1.5m long and weigh up to 150kg l Pandas often give birth to twins. In the wild, the mother will choose one cub to raise and leave the other to die. The discarded cub is raised by zoo staff in captivity l Panda cubs grow up to 10 times their birth weight in the first five to six weeks l Following ancient Chinese tradition, giant panda cubs are not to be named until they have been alive for 100 days l A giant panda can eat up to 38kg of bamboo a day and will only select the best bamboo, rejecting as much as 85 per cent of it. This can take up to 16 hours to eat each day l The giant panda’s teeth are approximately seven times bigger than a human’s, which helps the animal chew and eat its mountains of bamboo
“No doubt it’s [panda diplomacy] about trade,” says Towne. “The Canadian loan came about after Prime Minister Stephen Harper's trade visit to China. Beijing wants a relationship with Canada because of its coal and oil supplies”
Panda protection With China’s panda populations on an upward spike – the last WWF survey in 2004 estimated there were 1,600 pan- das in the wild, and this number is since thought to have grown – leasing solely for the sake of conservation objectives now seems less plausible. Despite attracting criticism from wild-
life groups who say panda diplomacy is cruel and unnecessary, the benefits for China’s wild and captive panda populations appear to be evident. Under wildlife treaties and the lease
agreements, all of the money paid to China for the pandas is reinvested in conservation projects across the coun-
AM 1 2014 ©cybertrek 2014
Edinburgh Zoo’s Yang Guang and Tian Tian have raised the profile of the attraction
try’s north where the bears primarily reside. China gained huge media attention in September 2013 when it showcased 14 panda cubs artificially bred at Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base, hailed as a major breakthrough. “It’s amazing to see the amount of
work that goes into preserving the pan- das,” says Xiaoping Lu, division director at the CITES management author- ity in China. “The exchange of people between China and the US has helped towards knowledge sharing, leading to key developments in technical assistance, breeding technology and nutrition management.” As for the pandas travelling overseas,
Lu insists that no pandas are ever taken from the wild and that bears are carefully selected from the country’s estimated 300-strong population in captivity. The notoriously secretive mating habits of the panda has led to perceptions of it
being a fragile creature which is highly vulnerable to change, but this is actually a misconception. Pandas living in captivity abroad often
live to be around 30-years-old – far longer than their life expectancy in the wild, which is estimated by experts to be around 20 years. “Pandas are very adjustable animals and the most resilient of any I’ve dealt with,” says Towne. “The care afforded to these loaned pandas is very extensive, both medically and nutritionally. They're well looked after and only two per cent die prematurely in captivity now, which is pretty incredible.” Regardless of whether panda leasing is seen as a costly loss-leader, an invest- ment or a huge revenue generator for the attractions, the success of conserva- tion efforts and huge appetite for these creatures among visitors, means that successful panda diplomacy is likely to continue well into the future. l
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital 77
PHOTO: ROB MCDOUGALL
Source: Edinburgh Zoo, Toronto Zoo, BBC
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