Edinburgh Zoo giant panda plans – entertainment over conservation?
Edinburgh Zoo has announced plans to keep giant pandas, which would make it one of just four European zoos to have the species. After a year of negotiations, representatives of the zoo signed a Letter of Intent with the Wolong panda ‘research centre’ in China on 29th April, signifying an initial commitment to bring the animals to Edinburgh Zoo. It is planned to start displaying the animals in 2009 – Edinburgh Zoo’s centenary year. There are only around 1,600 giant pandas left in their natural habitat and around 200 in zoos worldwide. The only ones currently in Europe are in zoos in Berlin, Madrid and Vienna. CAPS believe that the over-riding purpose of bringing pandas to a UK zoo would be for tourism. David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns Edinburgh Zoo, told the media: "This is not just an issue for Edinburgh or even Scotland, people will come from all over the UK to see them." According to one newspaper: “The zoo estimates visitor figures of around 750,000 per year could increase to more than one million if the pandas come to Scotland.” The United Nations Environment Programme has previously stated: "Giant pandas are one if not the most sought after of animals for zoos. They are probably the biggest crowd pullers on Earth." Zoos that have exhibited the species have seen attendance doubling and profits of millions of pounds, some from the sale of souvenirs. As well as displaying the typical behavioural problems seen in so many animals confined in zoos, captive pandas have also become overweight and listless and are often unable to mate normally. The birth-rate and survival of cubs has been so poor in captivity that most are now bred by artificial insemination. In 2004 the assistant to the director of the panda centre in Wolong criticised conditions at the centre. Although space for the animals was due to be increased, he said: "The pandas roam idly, shaking their heads and sometimes even throwing themselves against the fence as a result of growing psychological pressure."
China's agreement to send giant pandas to zoos around the world has often been accused of having more to do with international relations between governments than about conservation. Many of the pandas 'loaned' to zoos by China have been to encourage diplomatic relations or commemorate events. They have had little, or nothing, to do with conservation. The major threats to the giant panda are habitat destruction and poaching. The creation of new panda reserves and 'corridors' linking protected regions have a major benefit on the future of the panda. “We know far too little about pandas to even guess at how growing up in captivity might affect the development of their foraging and reproductive behaviour. Beyond the fundamental uncertainty about the ability of captives to survive at all in the wild and to integrate themselves into a natural population, are the essential questions that as yet remain unanswered. At present it is normal practice to remove a cub from its mother in time to bring her into oestrus the following season so that she can mate again. This might in theory double her reproductive rate, but does it affect the cubs ability to socialise with other pandas? … Answering these questions will pose formidable problems, and at present there are so few zoo-reared cubs that they are largely irrelevant. But if the captive-breeding programme is to do more than produce exhibits for zoos, they are questions that must soon be answered.” At a 1997 workshop organised by WWF and Chinese Ministry of Forestry it was concluded that reintroduction could not be recommended at that time and that the most important activities to promote panda conservation are habitat conservation and research into panda populations and habitat. Funding of wildlife reserves and habitat preservation and restoration are the only real way to protect these animals. The authors of a WWF report concluded: "protecting pandas in their natural habitat is indisputably the highest priority for conservation of this internationally known and loved, but highly endangered species". WHAT YOU CAN DO
Photographs courtesy of the Asian Animals Protection Network |
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) breeding success of pandas is greater in the wild than in captivity. In their natural state, all adult females and males appear to be involved in breeding whereas only 28% of adult pandas in captivity are breeding. 