50 years on, U.S. zoos proud of panda care
2022-04-15 China Daily Editor：Li Yan
The story of pandas living in the U.S. began with the historic visit of then-U.S. president Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon to China in 1972. After Mrs. Nixon expressed interest in the animals, Premier Zhou Enlai presented two giant pandas to the American people, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, as a symbol of goodwill.
The pair's arrival at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington DC on April 16, 1972, attracted 20,000 people. In the following month, they received more than 1 million visitors. The bears' arrival marked a new chapter in the U.S.-China history.
To commemorate 50 years of hosting and caring for giant pandas, the zoo has been conducting a series of events online and offsite.
The events, which will run through Aug 27, included the Giant Panda Family Tree Photo Gallery in the outdoor giant panda exhibit since March 16, the premiere of the Smithsonian Channel's documentary The Miracle Panda on April 16 and 17; and other activities, details of which can be found in full on the zoo's website.
While the National Zoo is hosting the six-month celebration, conservation experts from three other American zoos, which all have engaged in cooperative research programs with China over the years to learn about pandas, spoke with China Daily about their work to protect the beloved furry animals.
The San Diego Zoo's conservation program kicked off in 1996 when giant pandas Bai Yun and Shi Shi arrived after a 12-year research loan agreement was reached with China.
For the last 27 years, the zoo has supported China's efforts to conserve the giant panda populations, Megan Owen, corporate director of wildlife conservation science at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, told China Daily.
The zoo's scientists have helped develop breeding strategies and reintroduction techniques, managed the well-being and health of the animals and enhanced the understanding of the dynamics of wild giant pandas in the face of climate change and the implementation of an expansive protected area system in China, she said.
"For each of these, our conservation strategy has been to listen to our partners and ensure that our scientific and husbandry activities were supporting our overall objectives to grow a thriving and genetically diverse giant panda population," Owen said.
Through its works, the zoo developed early pregnancy tests and a milk formula for panda cubs that raised survival rates from zero to 100 percent. At the same time, the zoo's scientists learned from their Chinese colleagues important details about the panda's system of social communication and the critical habitat to support the pandas in the wild.
"Beyond our shared scientific findings, we have also gained invaluable lessons about international conservation partnerships and about how open communication and information sharing along with a singular commitment to conservation can reverse dire situations for wildlife," she said.
The scientists' work has greatly boosted the pandas' survival rate. In 2010, the population of pandas in human care has reached the milestone of 300 bears, the minimum necessary to sustain genetic diversity for the next 100 years, according to the zoo.
During her stay in San Diego, Bai Yun became a productive matriarch who gave birth to six cubs, one of whom was fathered by Shi Shi. Her other five offspring were all sired by Gao Gao, a male panda who replaced the ailing Shi Shi as Bai Yun's mate when the latter returned to China in 2003.
Owen said it was mesmerizing and fascinating to watch the pandas eat bamboo. Bai Yun, who "with extraordinary jaw strength" was able to "fell a mature bamboo timber with one bite and then sit down and delicately and patiently strip the outside coating off of each piece she selected to eat", she said.
"Day in, day out, I never got tired of observing this special giant panda behavior," Owen said.
In keeping with the loan agreement, the staff at the San Diego Zoo said their goodbyes to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu, the two last remaining pandas, who were safely repatriated to China in May 2019.
"We at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance would be honored to be home for future generations of giant pandas. Our millions of annual guests and tens of millions of social media followers very much look forward to meeting these messengers of friendship and trust from China again in person," Owen said.
Before the arrival of Lun Lun and Yang Yang in 1999, Zoo Atlanta already had a research partnership with the Chengdu Research Center of Giant Panda Breeding, which goes back decades.
"So with that relationship in place, and then the arrival of the pandas to Atlanta, it just really helps to broaden that partnership and helps us do more research to learn about the behavior and biology of this species," Jenny Elgart, the zoo's lead keeper in the panda area, told China Daily.
Over the years, Zoo Atlanta has contributed more than $16 million for conservation of wild giant pandas in China, which encompasses eight different nature reserves, she said. That money also supported projects such as research on genetic diversity, construction of a protection station, reserve management and reforestation projects.
Lun and Lun and Yang Yang have had seven offspring since their arrival, including two sets of twins, Mei Lun and Mei Huan in 2013, who were considered the first surviving pair of giant panda twins ever born in the U.S.. The second set, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, were reared in 2016.
Giant pandas have a high mortality rate in the first few months after birth, and the risk is greater when twins are born. That's because the mother panda only has the energy to nurse one cub, explained Elgart, who has cared for all nine pandas at the zoo.
Elgart credited the success of the twins to the zoo's husbandry care team, but also to their collaborative works with colleagues from the research center in China.
She noted that in 2016, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the giant panda's status from "endangered" to "vulnerable".
Back in the 1980s, there were more than 1,100 pandas in China, but the latest census conducted in 2014 put the number of animals alive in the wild at more than 1,800, according to the WWF.
"Zoo Atlanta is really proud to have been a part of all these conservation programs in China," she said, adding that the status upgrade is "a great example of how different conservation programs can work and how they need to be sustained long term", she said.
Memphis Zoo's panda exhibit was the result of the zoo's research plans aligning with local business interests. But a key part of its success in receiving the pandas was former U.S. senator James Sasser of Tennessee, who served as the U.S. ambassador to China from 1996-99.
Sasser "took it as just a personal goal", to advocate for his hometown and facilitated the zoo's exchange with Chinese officials, Matt Thompson, the zoo's deputy director, told China Daily.
Before knowing they will get the animals for sure, zoo officials began construction on a $16 million panda exhibit and planted an 8-acre bamboo field, Thompson said.
The CHINA exhibit created an environment that "make it feels like you are going on a little trip to China", featuring a mix of pagoda, pavilion, courtyard, theater and other architecture, he said. It would house other species native to China should the panda deal had not panned out.
"We feel like it was worth the risk, and either way we would end up with a beautiful exhibit that was a tribute to the wildlife of China. We are still very proud of the exhibit," he said.
Most of the construction money came from private and corporate donors, who were excited about the prospects of pandas and fell in love with the exhibit's cultural components, Thompson said.
In April 2003, Le Le and Ya Ya jetted in on a 13-hour flight from Beijing, their arrival causing a tremendous stir. The zoo saw their visitors number jumped from around 600,000 to 800,000 within the first year of the pandas' arrival, said Thompson.
"It was a very uniting thing for the city of Memphis, which I've never seen happen. We are a very well-supported zoo, I will say, and I'm very proud of the support that we receive, but I've never seen the city come around animals like they did when the pandas arrived. That was unpredictable, and very exciting, and it continues to be," he said.
"They are just such good ambassadors, for not only the country of China, but just conservation, and just their species, they are just incredible animals, so we are going to try," he said.
