Zoo Will Visit China on Monkey Business

The only pair of rare Chinese golden monkeys in the United States will be returned to China next week, and San Diego Zoo officials who hosted them want another pair so much they are following the two monkeys home to negotiate a permanent loan.

Zoo officials are planning a 12-day “good-will visit” to China in May to update a 10-year animal-trading agreement with the Chinese, signed in 1985. The trip is meant to help pave the way for a permanent breeding loan of two more golden monkeys, possibly as early as this summer.

The endangered species is characterized by long, golden hair and light-blue faces with upturned noses. Only a few thousand remain in the forests of central China.

Visit to Old Panda Friends

Zoo representatives will also meet with Chinese wildlife officials and visit two old friends--Yuan Yuan and Basi, the two pandas at the Fouzhou Zoo who drew throngs of visitors when they were on loan to the San Diego Zoo from July, 1987, to February, 1988.

Doug Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society of San Diego, along with Art Risser, the zoo’s general manager, Jim Dolan, general curator, China consultant Clayton Swanson and others will visit Beijing, Fouzhou and Shanghai, zoo spokeswoman Georgeanne Irvine said.

“In China, it’s important to establish a relationship over time with the various zoo officials,” Irvine said. “Their culture is a little different from ours. Friendship doesn’t occur overnight, so these good-will visits are very important.”

Irvine said the San Diego Zoo has had a long relationship with Chinese wildlife officials. A pair of golden monkeys loaned to the zoo in 1984 were the first ever exhibited outside of China.

“We want to have a good Chinese animal genetic pool in our zoo. Many of the Chinese animals are very, very rare, and we would like to work with the Chinese to help save them from extinction,” Irvine said. “There aren’t a lot of Chinese animals in other zoos, and we find their animals fascinating.”

The pair of golden monkeys that departs next week, Ying Xiong and Ping Ping, have been in San Diego for two years on a behavioral research loan. They will remain on exhibit until Monday. A third golden monkey, Jing Tong, died in December from what zoo officials believed to be tuberculosis.

Irvine said Jing Tong’s death did not cool the relationship with Chinese officials. The San Diego Zoo has more than 40 species of rare Chinese birds, animals and reptiles, including Manchurian cranes, raccoon-like animals known as lesser pandas and exotic pheasants known as Chinese monals.