Chinese Extend Pandas’ Visit at Zoo Into February

The two giant pandas on loan from China to the San Diego Zoo will remain in San Diego into February under a new contract affirming the Chinese government’s original offer to extend the loan for a second 100 days, zoo officials announced Tuesday.

Betty Jo Williams, president of the Zoological Society of San Diego, said zoo officials received word Monday night through an emissary in Hong Kong that the Chinese had signed the document that ensures that the pandas will remain.

The original 100-day contract governing the loan expired Oct. 31. Williams said Tuesday that she had received no explanation for why the Chinese waited until after the contract’s expiration to act on the zoo’s request for an extension, made in September.

“I am not sure that the Chinese government considered it a delay,” Williams said. “ . . . When you consider how much has been going on over there, we’re very fortunate that they would take time out . . . to consider our panda loan.”

Arrived July 23

The rare animals--a 7-year-old female named Basi and a 6-year-old male named Yuan Yuan--arrived at the zoo on July 23 under an agreement aimed in part at raising public awareness of the plight of endangered species like the panda.

Since then, daily attendance at the zoo on certain days has risen by as many as 5,000 visitors over last year’s levels. Zoo officials are hoping the pandas’ presence will enable the zoo to log 4 million visits in 1987, breaking all previous records.

Williams said the year’s cumulative total is expected to hit 3.4 million today or Thursday. The zoo received that many visits in all of 1986, which was a record year for the zoo.

“We still have a month and a half to go,” Williams said. “So it has been a very popular exhibit and we are very pleased that the People’s Republic of China would consider leaving them here for another 100 days.”

She said none of the handful of U.S. zoos that have received panda loans in the past have enjoyed more than 100 days.

Williams said the new agreement will be picked up in Beijing by the zoo’s executive director, Douglas Myers, who with two other zoo officials leaves for China this week to consult with Chinese officials on conservation of species in captivity and the wild.

The San Diego officials will be meeting with members of the Chinese Ministry of Forestry, China Wildlife Conservation Assn. and officials of Beijing and the Beijing Zoo, who zoo officials said are working on a unified conservation plan for the country.

Williams said the group was invited by the Chinese and will spend about 10 days in the country.