China revamps panda leasing system after deaths
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China is revamping the conditions of its panda leasing system, following the deaths of several animals.
Xinhua reported the country’s State Forestry Administration as saying recently that stricter inspection and supervision of the pandas will be introduced.
Under the new rules, the administration said that Chinese zoos should not profit from allowing visitors to feed the pandas or take photos with them.
Breeding centres in Sichuan province have lent almost 100 pandas to more than 40 zoos across China, some of which have died.
Earlier this month, two pandas went on display at a zoo in Changchun, in northern China’s Jilin province, where winter temperatures can dip as low as -30⁰C. This is the furthest north a panda has ever been displayed in China.
“There is a set procedure to follow, but we have seen violations where the enclosure, keeper, veterinarian or food supply chain did not meet the required standards,” Xinhua reported Zhang Zhihe, head of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, as saying.
Under new rules, zoos applying to borrow pandas will have to send their keepers and vets to the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province for three months of training, and the reserve will send inspection teams to the zoos every year.
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