S.D. Zoo May Get a Pair of Pandas
The San Diego Zoo has reached a tentative agreement with the Chinese government to borrow a pair of giant pandas for breeding, officials said Tuesday.
The agreement between zoo Executive Director Doug Myers and the Sichuan provincial government culminates a year of negotiations, zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said. The agreement was reached last month while Myers was in China.
The black-and-white pandas could arrive within nine months to a year if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves an import permit and Chinese wildlife officials approve the zoo’s panda enclosures, Jouett said.
A team of 20 scientists will work with the male and female pandas in hopes the pair will breed.
“We will focus on panda reproduction and hopefully solve some of the mysteries that are currently keeping these animals on the endangered-species list,” Jouett said.
There have been few instances of giant pandas successfully breeding in captivity. Female giant pandas are receptive to males for breeding only one or two days a year.
If a baby panda were born at the zoo, China would retain custody of the offspring, although the zoo would have “visitation rights,” Jouett said.
The zoo borrowed two giant pandas for a popular exhibit from July, 1987, until February, 1988, but they were kept apart.
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