Panda Pact Detailed as Zoo Promotes Exotic Guests

Amid a flurry of panda pins, panda patches and panda press kits, the San Diego Zoo on Monday began a months-long panda fandango honoring the imminent arrival of two giant pandas from China on a 200-day loan to the zoo.

Flanked by a phalanx of stuffed pandas and a person in a koala suit cradling a panda, zoo officials detailed for the first time the agreement reached in China last week under which the panda pair is to arrive in San Diego in mid-July.

The rare animals--a 7-year-old female named Basi and a 6-year-old male named Yuan Yuan--are to be exhibited in a custom-designed enclosure in one of the cooler canyons of the zoo, with a tiered visitors’ area for specially scheduled public viewing.

It is hoped the exhibition will increase public support for protecting endangered species like the giant panda, whose numbers have dwindled to just 700 in the wild. It also is expected to boost attendance significantly at the already well-attended San Diego Zoo.

Boosting Ties With China

“I guess the most important thing as we look at pandas in the San Diego Zoo is that we look at the overall relationship that we have with China,” Douglas Myers, executive director of the zoo, said at a news conference. “Pandas are just another plateau, and we hope to move on and up with our relationship with our Chinese friends.”

Under the agreement worked out in a two-day session in a conference room at the Beijing Zoo, the two pandas are to travel by jet from the Fuzhou Zoo in Fujian province in southeastern China to San Diego in mid-July.

They are to be accompanied by two Chinese keepers for their entire 200-day stay. The Fuzhou Zoo director, who is a veterinarian, also is expected to accompany the entourage for the first three months of the exhibit.

In addition, a team of advance men from China will visit San Diego next month to approve the facilities, investigate the bamboo supply and bring the special food supplement that the Chinese use to beef up the pandas’ diet.

Months-Long Negotiations

According to Myers, negotiations between zoo representatives and the China Wildlife Conservation Assn. began several months ago in a series of telexes and culminated over the past two weeks in the meeting at the Beijing Zoo.

There, speaking through interpreters, the two teams of negotiators hashed out the details of their agreement, covering such things as insurance, panda care and maintenance, and pricklier topics like rights to research and length of stay.

For example, Myers said the zoo asked to conduct observational research on the pandas’ behavior. Concerned that the animals be allowed to “settle in,” the Chinese agreed only to discuss the idea again after the pandas’ arrival, Myers said.

Another concession that the zoo requested was for the rights to post-mortem if, for some reason, one of the pandas died during the visit. Clayton Swanson, the zoo’s consultant, said the Chinese agreed to consider it--something Swanson said they never had done before.

Donation to Be Made

In the end, the two sides drew up a four-page agreement, which then was signed over a Chinese banquet. Myers said the zoo expects to make a donation to China’s panda preservation fund in return for the panda loan; he said the amount remains under negotiation.

Myers said the panda exhibition is expected to boost zoo attendance, though he said he did not know by how much. Previous panda loans in Los Angeles and San Francisco increased attendance as much as 300%. Myers said the zoo is in almost daily contact with officials at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, where two Chinese pandas went on exhibit this month.

Myers said the zoo expects to offer extended hours for panda viewing, but that the viewings will take place in regularly scheduled sessions. He said there would be no additional charge for visitors to see the pandas.

Giant pandas are native only to the high mountains of central China, primarily in Sichuan province. At one time, they ranged throughout most of central and eastern China, according to information supplied by the zoo.

The loan of the two pandas would make the San Diego Zoo the only West Coast zoo exhibiting giant pandas. Two were displayed in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1984. But the only ones now in the United States are in Washington and New York City.

The pandas’ arrival is contingent upon the issuance of permits from the U.S. Department of the Interior.