Longer Visit for Pandas Up in the Air

On the eve of the expiration of the San Diego Zoo’s contract with the Chinese government to exhibit two extraordinarily popular giant pandas, the Chinese have yet to affirm in writing their earlier offer to extend the loan for another 100 days.

A zoo representative is in Hong Kong and met recently with Chinese officials in Beijing in an effort to win a new contract guaranteeing that the two pandas would remain in San Diego until Feb. 15.

“The only thing that we can imagine is that the time factor is not as crucial for the Chinese as it is for us,” Jeff Jouett, a zoo spokesman, said Friday. “ . . . We’re the ones who are anxious to have this confirmed in writing.”

The pandas arrived in San Diego in late July and have since helped boost zoo attendance to 30% above last year’s levels. Zoo officials say the increase in daily attendance, apparently attributable to the pandas, has ranged from 2,000 to 5,000.

Contract Expires Today

But the contract between the zoo and the Chinese Ministry of Forestry expires today. Jouett said zoo officials were told originally to accept a 100-day contract and apply for a renewal as the expiration date approached.

“We’re very confident that they’ll keep their word and the pandas will be here,” Jouett said. “Certainly, no one has made any travel plans for the pandas, and you don’t move a precious cargo like that by putting them in a cab to the airport.”

Jouett said the zoo will assume it may keep the pandas unless it hears otherwise.

The arrival of the 7-year-old female and 6-year-old male last summer culminated decades of effort by the zoo to persuade the Chinese to send a pair on loan. The zoo is currently the only one on the West Coast to be displaying the endangered breed.

Officials hope the exhibit will increase public support for protecting species like the panda, whose numbers have dwindled to just 700 in the wild. In return for the loan, the zoo has made an unspecified donation to the China Wildlife Conservation Assn.

Visit a Success

Zoo officials say the visit to San Diego has been an unqualified success--the only untoward incident having occurred when the female found her way into the male panda’s enclosure and spent 10 minutes there before being discovered.

The pandas came from China accompanied by two young trainers who have been living in trailers next to the panda enclosure on the zoo grounds. Also with them has been the director of the Fuzhou Zoo, where the pandas are normally housed.

Jouett said neither the trainers nor the zoo director had received any indication that they or the pandas would be returning to China in the near future. “He hasn’t heard anything,” Jouett said of the director. “We’re all waiting.”

Jouett said the uncertainty poses some problems for the San Diego Zoo.

For example, the zoo recently began an educational program called “Pandaerobics” under which schoolchildren from throughout the county visit the pandas. The zoo has also arranged to give out free panda pins--an offer that would be inappropriate if the pandas left.

“It’s getting to be a little pesky, let’s say,” Jouett said, when asked about the inconvenience. He estimated that the zoo has received 30 to 40 calls each day this week from people wondering how long the pandas’ visit will continue.