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Giant Panda Conservation Today
by Devra Kleiman

The past few years have seen renewed attention focused on the biology and conservation of giant pandas and their unique habitat. A new survey of pandas and their habitat, training programs, and several new research initiatives have been proposed or initiated. The National Zoo hopes to be a major promoter of and collaborator in these efforts.

In 1993, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) banned the import of giant pandas into the U.S.; the moratorium was imposed because of the commercial nature of the many short-term loans of giant pandas in the 1980s. The "rent-a-panda" phenomenon in North America started with a loan to the Los Angeles Zoo for the 1984 Olympics. The going rate at that time was $100,000 per month for two pandas. The FWS believed that these loans were not contributing to giant panda conservation because rental pandas were being removed from the zoo and breeding center population, which was clearly not viable. Additionally, there was good evidence that some of the monies raised were not being spent on panda conservation. Finally, and most damaging, was the public misperception that giant pandas were being removed from the wild to support the rental program, thus potentially threatening the species’ survival in the wild. The FWS decided to suspend imports while it developed a policy exclusively for this species, probably the most widely recognized wild animal in the world.

At the same time, other international conservation organizations, including the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the International Union of Zoo Directors (IUDZG), and the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), passed resolutions supporting a ban on short-term giant panda loans, the impetus being that the zoo panda population was not yet viable. Despite a population of more than 100 giant pandas in Chinese zoos and centers, few infants were born each year and even fewer survived longer than one year. Concurrently, the AZA was developing a Species Survival Plan (SSP) for the giant panda and a coordinated North American zoo approach (the AZA Panda Plan) to support the conservation of the species in zoos as well as the wild.

Before the December 1993 FWS import ban, the San Diego Zoological Society signed an agreement with China’s Ministry of Forestry and submitted an application to the FWS to import a pair of giant pandas on a ten-year breeding loan. Based on the quality of their research proposal, the FWS judged that San Diego’s efforts would enhance giant panda survival and awarded the zoo an import permit in 1995. After a long delay, San Diego finally received its pandas in September 1996. This was the first pair of potentially reproductive giant pandas to enter the U.S. since 1972 when Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrived at the National Zoo as a state gift from the People’s Republic of China.

As part of their agreement with the Chinese, San Diego Zoological Society launched an impressive array of research studies focused on the zoo and wild pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan. Research topics have ranged from chemical communication and the use of den sites to the hormonal changes accompanying estrus. The panda pair at the San Diego Zoo has not yet bred naturally; to date, artificial insemination has also proven unsuccessful.

The Chinese government and the international conservation community have justified the export of giant pandas, on short- or long-term loans, as a means of raising money to support the conservation of wild giant pandas. More than ten years ago, the Chinese estimated the cost of creating and improving reserves to save giant pandas at $100 million (in 1992 dollars). A zoo has therefore been expected to contribute in excess of $1 million per year for the loan of a pair of pandas.

The World Wide Fund for Animals (WWF), whose logo is a giant panda, began to support research and conservation programs for giant pandas in 1980. After a lull in activities during the early 1990s, it has been working since 1984 on a model program using a participatory planning process with local communities that exist near remaining giant panda habitat in Sichuan province. The hope is that eventually people can not only coexist and support the maintenance of populations of giant pandas, but profit economically from this unique natural resource through ecotourism and other types of sustainable development.

Also, WWF has contracted with China’s State Forestry Administration to begin the first census of giant pandas since 1988 and to survey remaining giant panda habitat through use of the new Geographic Information Systems technology. For more than 20 years, we have been saying that about 1,000 giant pandas survive in the wild, despite the fact that nearly 50 percent of their habitat has been destroyed during this interval. The new survey will reveal whether that remains a good estimated of giant panda numbers.

Finally, WWF has been contributing to the dialogue about giant panda reintroduction. In November 1997, it sponsored a workshop to determine the conditions under which reintroduction would be an appropriate strategy for giant panda conservation.

An ongoing problem is that giant pandas in zoos and breeding centers still demonstrate poor breeding performance and are not managed as a single unit. To assist with the development of a long-term zoo management plan, the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) of the IUCN led a workshop for representatives from Chinese zoos in December 1996. At the workshop, the participants began the process of evaluating the zoo panda population individual by individual. The workshop led to biomedical surveys to assess the health and reproductive potential of a portion of the zoo population in 1998 and 1999. The CBSG hopes to continue assisting in the evaluation of the zoo panda population and to facilitate the development of a long-term master plan for both the zoo and wild populations.

Several other U.S. zoos are supporting conservation activities for giant pandas in China. Zoo Atlanta is sponsoring research to determine why male giant pandas reproduce so poorly in zoos. The Columbus Zoo is funding some census work and infrastructure within one giant panda reserve. One of the greatest problems of Chinese national reserves for giant pandas is the lack of infrastructure for staff to carry out their work. Without housing, roads, equipment, and vehicles, staff cannot monitor panda habitat to prevent further logging and poaching of pandas and other native species.

And what efforts have been and are being made by the National Zoo? Over a 28-year period, we have contributed enormously to the sum of knowledge about giant pandas and to their conservation. With generous support from Friends of the National Zoo, we have published dozens of scientific papers based on our own research, sponsored workshops and symposia, supported research by Chinese colleagues, trained Chinese students and wildlife managers, been major contributors to the development of national and international policies, such as the AZA Giant Panda Plan, and helped to carry out the biomedical surveys mentioned above.

Today, the Zoo is about to embark on a major expansion of its studies of panda biology and its efforts to save pandas in the wild. We are currently preparing research proposals to study panda behavior and physiology as well as to perform an analysis of panda habitat that will answer some of the perplexing questions about why this species is in decline. We are also focusing on providing training for our Chinese colleagues in giant panda behavioral ecology, wildlife management, conservation biology, zoo management, and veterinary care. Last, we are planning innovative education programs to raise public awareness of the species’ plight.

We hope to continue to promote the expansion and viability of the zoo giant panda population through cooperative breeding loans with Chinese and other international institutions so that the world zoo population will thrive and many more institutions can share in working with and educating their public about this unique animal.

As part of this effort, we hope to see breeding giant pandas return to the National Zoo here in Washington D.C. The FWS published a new giant panda import policy in 1998, opening the door for giant pandas to enter the U.S. But such an event can only occur within the context of AZA, FWS, Chinese government, and international policies and procedures directed toward the ultimate survival of a viable population of this species in the wild. Eventually, every one of us should have the miraculous opportunity, as I have, to see this magnificent animal perched high atop a swaying conifer in its natural mountainous bamboo-covered home.

Devra Kleiman is Senior Research Scientist in the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Department of Zoological Research. She has studied giant pandas since they came to the Zoo in 1972. She has visited China regularly to work on giant pandas and their conservation since 1978.

ZooGoer 28(2) 1999.
Copyright 1999 Friends of the National Zoo.
All rights reserved.

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