Hahn Hopes to Bag a Pair of Pandas on Far East Trip

As Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn travels through Asia this week, his stated goals are to boost tourism and drum up business for the airport and harbor. But the big prize he seeks is a coveted set of Chinese souvenirs: a pair of giant pandas.

That’s no easy task. Getting a pair of the rare creatures -- once considered more akin to big raccoons than little bears but now generally credited with legitimate membership in the bear family -- will require smart politics and substantial investment.

The Chinese government rations out its panda loans, carefully picking which U.S. cities and zoos deserve a chance to display and breed the lumbering animals, which can weigh as much as 250 pounds in the wild.

Memphis, Tenn., Las Vegas and Oakland are among the cities in the hunt. The winners will get to borrow a pair of the gentle animals, which zoo-goers flock to see. For the losers, panda pens will go empty, and the Chinese government has a disappointing consolation prize: a golden monkey.

Panda lobbying is long, expensive and political. It can take millions of dollars, substantial political capital and years of effort. Indeed, Hahn could be out of office before the city learns if it will ever receive the pandas. He is undeterred.

“It’s a huge feather in a city’s cap if they can get a panda,” the mayor said in an interview before he took off for Seoul last weekend. “It’s a very good investment for the entire zoo to have pandas. They are a marquee exhibit. It would be huge.”

Enchanted by the possibility that Los Angeles might get its own pandas, city officials traveling this week with Hahn are navigating diplomatic niceties as they gently press their case. Among other things, Hahn is expected to argue that Los Angeles’ status as a gateway city to Asia and its large Chinese population would make it a suitable home for the animals.

David Towne, a consultant to the Los Angeles Zoo and the head of the Giant Panda Conservation Foundation, is going to Beijing to help Hahn land pandas. A big part of his message is patience and attention to detail.

“I’ve tried to advise the folks here: Do not put the Chinese on the spot by announcing that you’re getting the pandas,” Towne said in an interview. “It works against you. It embarrasses you and it puts pressure on them. You have to develop rapport ... and relationships. There’s nothing like long-term relationships.”

Only three zoos in the United States have pandas: the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., which has two; Zoo Atlanta, which has a pair; and the San Diego Zoo, which has two adults and a younger animal that soon will be returned to China. China requires that all pandas lent out to zoos abroad be returned to China, usually within 10 years. Any babies born to their pandas must be returned to China by age 3.

The mayor will find himself in line with others seeking pandas. The Memphis Zoo, for example, already has received word that its request for pandas has been approved in principle by the Chinese Assn. of Zoological Gardens. The Mandalay Bay Resort on the Las Vegas Strip also has been lobbying and the city of Oakland has expressed interest.

Bagging pandas typically is reserved for wealthy or politically connected exhibitors. And, as with so many things, powerful friends don’t hurt.

The Memphis Zoo’s effort, for example, was launched in 1999 by former Tennessee Sen. James Sasser, then the U.S. ambassador to China. He began talks with the Chinese government that have continued, even though he is no longer there.

Zoo Atlanta also received well-placed help, in its case from former President Carter.

Los Angeles leaders recognize that Hahn does not exactly pack Carter’s wallop. Because of that, experts in the field of panda acquisition say, Hahn would need to win support from California’s congressional delegation and from Chinese officials in this country, as well.

Money also helps.

The cities that are successful in receiving pandas pledge millions to the Chinese government to help protect the dwindling wild populations of the animals. There are about 1,000 left in the wild in China and several hundred in captivity. The goal for U.S. zoos is to produce offspring.

For Hahn to be successful in scoring the pandas, he would have to commit tens of millions of dollars to the effort, according to Towne, who has advised other cities as well.

The Griffith Park zoo would need to build a state-of-the-art panda exhibit, which would include a breeding area and could cost $10 million to $12 million; Los Angeles would have to pay China about $1.2 million per year for 10 years for the loan agreement; and the city probably would spend at least another $1.2 million building relationships with China, to help with its conservation programs, and in other costs. (That money could be raised from private sources or taxpayers.)

In Memphis, zoo officials built a $16-million, 3-acre panda exhibit well before they received any indication that they might actually get the animals.

Aside from the money, Los Angeles also would need to meet criteria outlined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for issuing the import and export permits for pandas. The animals are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Among other things, Los Angeles would have to demonstrate a specific research project that would benefit the wild panda population in China. In San Diego, zoo officials are examining the way giant pandas communicate, said Don Lindberg, coordinator of the species survival plan for the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn., who is based in San Diego.

Memphis Zoo officials have pledged to study pandas’ nutrition, should they receive a pair. Los Angeles has yet to say what it might do for them.

Pandas can be a huge draw for zoos, particularly in the first few years, and especially if they have offspring, said Patricia Fisher, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman in Washington. They can generate substantial profits when they are displayed. Money from panda-related souvenirs typically is returned to China, she said.

For years after former President Nixon was given a pair of pandas as a gift from Mao Zedong, attendance at the National Zoo soared, officials said.

Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling were the first pandas in a U.S. zoo since the death of a panda in the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago in 1953. On the Sunday in 1972 when the pandas were first exhibited, 75,000 people visited the National Zoo. By the end of the first year, reports say, 1.1 million visitors saw them. (Curiously, Nixon never went to see them.) The San Diego Zoo had high attendance even before it received its two pandas in 1996, said a zoo spokeswoman, Christina Simmons. In fact, she said, the pandas have not generated a huge boost in income to the zoo. When the baby was born in August 1999 and finally put on exhibit, Simmons said, it was a rainy morning with more media representatives present than visitors.

But Zoo Atlanta has benefited from its pandas, Lun-Lun and Yang-Yang, which arrived in 1999. They were flown to the United States on a specially equipped United Parcel Service plane, and then whisked off to their new $7-million home. The zoo even installed a camera in the facility so that the animals, though not the most energetic of creatures, can be viewed on the Internet.

And though Los Angeles has never had a panda of its own, it did get a brief glimpse of the animals -- a look that tantalized some local leaders.

In 1984, the Chinese government allowed one of its pandas to come to Los Angeles for the Summer Olympics. Hahn, for one, was struck by the interest.

“I remember the lines were incredible,” the mayor said. “It was a great boost for the zoo.”

In the early 1990s, extreme pandering for pandas in this country led to a five-year moratorium on importing them. The ban was lifted in 1998 after the U.S. and Chinese governments agreed to a series of steps to avoid imports for purely commercial purposes. Conservationists feared that humans would love the pandas to death, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

San Diego, with its world-renowned zoo, was the first city to receive the pandas under the new policy. Lindberg, who works at the zoo, said he would welcome the opportunity to have another panda research center so close, if L.A. were successful.

But that proximity also could be a drawback for Los Angeles. As Towne said, “Politically, they’ll be weighing: Is it more important here -- so close to San Diego -- or would it be potentially better for St. Louis or Chicago?”

With so many things to consider, many panda experts warn that Hahn won’t get any promises when he meets with Beijing zoo officials. He does hope at least to enter into an agreement to open discussions about animal exchanges. Ideally, that would be the first step toward getting the pandas.

People close to Hahn say he’s eager to make any progress he can during this trip -- and to eventually see a panda exhibit at his hometown zoo.

“The mayor’s taken with them,” Towne said. “I’m not sure if he loves pandas, or if he loves having a high-profile animal here. He’s certainly interested in this.”