{"id":9131,"date":"2006-02-13T12:09:54","date_gmt":"2006-02-13T19:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/02\/13\/panda-attack.html"},"modified":"2006-02-13T12:09:54","modified_gmt":"2006-02-13T19:09:54","slug":"panda_attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/13\/panda_attack.html","title":{"rendered":"Panda attack!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The economics of hosting giant pandas at US zoos<\/a> — it’s really <\/em>expensive, both because of the facility needs and because China charges a frightfully large “rent” to keep the animals.<\/p>\n

But after the first year, crowds dwindle, while the expenses remain high. In fact, a panda’s upkeep costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant.<\/p>\n

A curator, three full-time keepers and one backup keeper care for Lun Lun and Yang Yang at Zoo Atlanta. A crew of six travels around Georgia six days a week, harvesting bamboo from 400 volunteers who grow it in their backyards. (Zoo Atlanta tried growing its own on a farm, as the Memphis Zoo does, but Lun Lun and Yang Yang turned up their noses.)<\/p>\n

“It’s crazy,” Mr. Kelly said. “These bears, year-round, are some of the most pampered animals on the planet. We measure everything that goes in. We measure everything that goes out.”<\/p>\n

Then there are the contracts, most lasting 10 years. Because China retains ownership of the pandas, zoos lease each pair for $1 million a year. If cubs are born, the annual fee increases by an average of $600,000. In addition, each zoo has agreed to pay another million or so each year to finance research and conservation projects in the United States and in China. Taken together, Mr. Kelly says, the contracts are worth more than $80 million to the Chinese government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s cool seeing pandas at zoos — but, frankly, it’s not clear that it’s that <\/em>cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The economics of hosting giant pandas at US zoos — it’s really expensive, both because of the facility needs and because China charges a frightfully large “rent” to keep the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15577,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/13\/teh-cute.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":0},"title":"TEH CUTE!!!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Aug-09 9:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Four Red Pandas born at the Denver Zoo. Too cute for words!\u00a0 Four furry little red pandas have been born at the Denver Zoo, only the fifth recorded birth of quadruplets at an accredited U.S. zoo. The four cubs, three males and one female, were born to mother Sophia and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"red-pandas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/red-pandas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13021,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/14\/brew_at_the_zoo_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":1},"title":"Brew at the Zoo!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Aug-08 9:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Just got the notice in the mail. A great time will be had by all (assuming, of course, you like beer). Join the creatures of the night at Denver...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16981,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/29\/tweets-from-2010-03-29.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from 2010-03-29","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Mar-10 12:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Lovely, lazy, lounging morning capped off by champaigne brunch at the Brown Palace. Excellent. # Stuffed ... to ... gills. Going to zoo with K to walk it off. # Souith end of Denver Zoo all torn up for new Asian Tropics exhibit. Looks very cool, except - they tore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10107,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/03\/sunday_in_revie.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":3},"title":"Sunday in Review","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Sep-06 10:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Normal churchy\/brunchy things in the morning. Debated various afternoon entertainments. Finally decided on the zoo. Couldn't find our certainly-renewed ID cards, but went anyway. Discovered that the half of the...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13676,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/25\/home_again.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":4},"title":"Home again","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Oct-08 4:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So last evening, after Margie and Katherine were both home, we packed up some bags and headed for ... the Denver Zoo. We'd signed up for a special instance of...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/11\/visit-the-zoo.html","url_meta":{"origin":9131,"position":5},"title":"Visit the zoo!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Jan-12 11:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"These WPA-created zoo posters are lovely. #ddtb Embedded Link 11 Great Zoo Posters Created for the WPA - Mental Floss 11 Great Zoo Posters Created for the WPA","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}