Calgary Zoo to host China’s giant pandas

CALGARY – Panda-monium is about to spread across Canada.

The Herald has learned the federal Conservative government has finalized an agreement with China that will see three Canadian zoos — in Calgary, Toronto and Granby, Que. — collectively "adopt" two giant pandas, likely beginning in 2011.

After months of panda diplomacy, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice — in Beijing for talks with his counterparts on a host of issues — and the Canadian Embassy have secured the Chinese government’s pledge to loan two pandas to Canada beginning next year.

Each of the three zoos, which have been working together on the project, is likely to receive the two pandas for 18 to 24 months, Prentice said. The facilities were informed of the agreement following Friday’s hour-long meeting between Canadian and Chinese officials.

"It is very exciting," Prentice told the Herald in Beijing. "Everybody loves the pandas."

The Calgary Zoo last had giant pandas on display in 1988, with the cuddly creatures drawing a record number of visitors.

The order of the tour is still to be determined by an interlocutor who will negotiate with the zoos, Chinese government and the Canadian Embassy, although the facility that can demonstrate it’s most ready to take on the giant pandas will likely get the first shot.

"The zoos have been talking about a later start date, but the Chinese government has been clear in indicating they would like this to begin in 2011," Prentice added.

Some zoo officials in Canada initially thought it could take up to four years to see the pandas arrive in the country, with warnings that an agreement was far from a guarantee.

The deal was finalized on Friday during a meeting between Prentice, China’s State Forestry Administrator Jia Zhibang (who’s responsible for panda negotiations) and Canadian Ambassador David Mulroney, among other officials.

"I will pick out a couple of nice pandas for Canada," Jia told Prentice at the end of the meeting, according to the Calgary MP.

Some zoos pay as much as $1 million for a short-term loan of the endangered pandas. However, the chairman of the Panda Acquisition Task Force at the Toronto Zoo has said "special friends" can sometimes get them for half the price.

In the 1980s, the Calgary Zoo brokered a unique arrangement that saw the zoo give roughly $650,000 to the Chinese government to put toward conservation efforts, rather than simply back into state coffers.

Prentice said no price has yet been agreed upon for the latest transfer.

The federal Tories have been dabbling in panda politics for several months now, hoping that improved relations over

the past year or so would convince the Chinese to lend two pandas to Canada.

In May, Treasury Board president Stockwell Day presented a panda proposal to high-ranking Chinese politicians, a meeting that was also attended by Premier Ed Stelmach, who has backed Ottawa’s pitch.

In July, then-governor general Michaelle Jean also made a pitch to bring the bamboo-chomping animals to Canada during a tour of the Chengdu Panda Base with Prentice and other officials, pressing the governor of Sichuan province, home to the vast majority of China’s pandas.

"It is an indication of just how far we’ve come in terms of the relationship. The Chinese are very careful about the pandas and where they allow long-term transfers," the minister added.

"The Chinese government will be very attentive to the care that is being provided for the pandas and the quality of the facilities that will be constructed and the safety of the bears."

Discussions have been ongoing among the zoos in Calgary, Toronto and Granby for almost a year about the possibility of acquiring the pandas on loan from China.

Laurie Herron, Calgary Zoo communications manager, said the zoo’s president, Clement Lanthier, was in China a few weeks ago along with a contingent from Toronto and Granby, to discuss panda care.

Herron said Lanthier was aware of the memorandum of understanding recently signed by the governments but added the animals are about five years away from coming to Calgary.

"It’s exciting news," said Herron. "But there are still many, many details to work out."

Herron noted having the Chinese icon in Calgary will bump up attendance but also promote the zoo’s aims.

"The giant panda is a symbol of conservation throughout the world so from our perspective it’ll help us talk about conservation and habitat preservation," explained Herron.

Herron added while the zoo doesn’t know if it will have to renovate or build new habitat to suit the giant panda’s needs, the attraction will be able to care properly for the animals.

The Calgary Zoo has faced increasing scrutiny over the past couple of years following the well-publicized deaths of animals at the facility.

In 2008, an entire cownose ray exhibit was wiped out because of human error. The zoo has revealed that of the 214 animal deaths at the facility in 2009, five were due to human error, including a capybara crushed by a hydraulic door.

A report released in June showed the zoo has seen an unusually high number of animals die in its care and that the facility faced system-wide problems, including low morale, aging infrastructure and a problematic staffing structure.

Prentice, however, said the Calgary Zoo’s care of animals was not a concern nor was it discussed in the negotiations.

Along with finalizing the panda swap, the minister said he also discussed with Chinese officials the possibility of twinning some of Canada’s national parks with those in China. Such a move would improve conservation, he said, and potentially be a boon to tourism in both countries by familiarizing Canadian and Chinese residents with each other’s parks.