Panda Pair : Resolution of Bureaucratic Impasse Allows China to Loan Two Animals to San Diego Zoo

Shi Shi and Bai Yun, a pair of giant pandas held hostage for more than a year by the politics of humans, appear to be headed for America at last.

Elated officials at the San Diego Zoo announced Thursday that plans to borrow the pandas from China were approved by the Chinese government, breaking a long impasse that had disappointed zoo visitors and left a new research center vacant.

“This is a really exciting day,” said Doug Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the zoo. “It appears we are going to be able to go ahead with our work to help the Chinese government save the giant panda.”

Myers said details have not yet been worked out on when the pandas will be shipped from the refuge in China where they are currently kept. He said zoo personnel would travel to China in the next several weeks to arrange medical preparations and a safe transfer.

Shi Shi, a 14-year-old male, and Bai Yun, a 4-year-old female, would be the nation’s only giant pandas outside the National Zoo in Washington, Myers said.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt rejected the zoo’s application to import pandas in 1993 after wildlife preservationists argued that zoos were exploiting the animals and might be encouraging the capture of pandas in China. But the zoo pledged to emphasize research over breeding and drop its bid to bring a female panda that some wildlife officials feared was captured for export. Babbitt approved the application in January 1995 and promised a broad national policy on importing pandas.

But Chinese bureaucratic infighting and troubled relations with the United States delayed final approval by the Chinese government until now.

An enclosure prepared for the pandas has stood idle, with a sign promising the pandas would be arriving soon. It was occupied at one point by a stuffed panda, but that ceased to be amusing and was removed as the wait for the real pandas dragged on, Myers said.

Zoo officials said the breakthrough came after U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) appealed to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, whom she befriended while both were mayors. Their respective cities, San Francisco and Shanghai, were sister cities at the time. During the last year, Feinstein said, she wrote letters and spoke to Zemin in person about the stalled panda loan before receiving word Thursday that the Chinese government had given approval.

The panda news was given a geopolitical spin.

“China’s approval of the panda loan is a strong gesture by China that it is committed to building healthy relations between our two countries,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Although some details remain to be worked out about implementation of the agreement, today’s announcement is very encouraging news.” Under the arrangement, the pandas will be loaned to the zoo for 12 years to permit research into their behavior, in particular how they use scent markings to communicate, Myers said. A team of zoo staffers will conduct the studies.

The zoo will contribute $1 million each year to projects in China aimed at protecting panda habitats. Those plans call for doubling the number of panda preserves.