Importing China’s Giant Pandas Is Temporarily Barred by U.S.

The Clinton Administration is temporarily barring the importation of giant pandas from China while it reassesses the idea of exhibiting them at U.S. zoos.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials said Monday they want to evaluate whether U.S. actions are helping to ensure the panda’s survival in the wild.

When U.S. zoos want to exhibit pandas, they must obtain a permit from the agency, sanctioning the loan of the animals from China. In the past, the permit requests have been for short-term exhibits of one or two pandas, for the main purpose of raising money to help with habitat conservation in China, said Ken Stansell, deputy division chief of Fish and Wildlife’s management authority office.

But now, he said, some U.S. zoos have expressed interest in long-term captive breeding programs that would bring larger numbers of the endangered animals here. Fewer than 1,000 giant pandas are believed to remain, virtually all of them found in the mountains of central and southwestern China.

Fish and Wildlife recently turned down the San Diego Zoo’s request to import a pair of giant pandas. Zoo officials, who already had spent $1 million to build an exhibit area and gift shop with panda curios, are appealing the agency’s decision.