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Taipei Zoo prepares for pandas, councilors pan plan

With the new government taking over next month, Taipei Zoo has invested NT$300 million (US$9.9 million) in a new exhibition hall in anticipation of the arrival of two giant pandas offered as a gift from Beijing. However, critics have blasted the zoo for adopting double standards in its treatment of the zoo’s animals.

Newly appointed Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said that a new panda exhibition hall, complete with a media center to get the pandas in the mating mood through the help of video shows, was expected to be finished by June. Zookeepers at the zoo have also completed essential medical and conservation training overseas.

Chao Ming-chieh (趙明杰), manager of the animal division at Taipei Zoo, said pandas are in heat for only a short period each year — usually between March and May. Female pandas are in heat for just a week. Panda excrement can reveal whether the animals are in heat.

Pandas bred in captivity lack the territorial awareness of wild pandas, and likewise the inclination to mate, Chao said.

Breeders at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan have tried using videos of mating pandas to stimulate interest.

The Taipei Zoo is prepared to invest in large plasma TVs and sophisticated lighting to create an environment conducive to panda reproduction.

SHORT HEAT

Chao said that research has shown that female pandas produce a scent to attract male pandas when they’re in heat. However, as the reproductive organ of the male panda is naturally short, even if pandas mate successfully, the chances of pregnancy are small. Hence, breeders also attempt artificial insemination to increase their reproductive rate.

As the pair of pandas expected to make their way to Taiwan have been together from infancy, Chao said they could have a higher rate of reproductive success — similar to wild pandas reared in close proximity.

THREE YEARS LATER

Beijing offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005 after former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) visit to China in May of that year. However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government rejected the offer, calling the offer a publicity ploy by China and part of its “unification” agenda as the panda’s names mean “unity.”

The panda issue returned to the fore after president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won the presidency on March 22 and said he would welcome them.

However, the city zoo has come under fire from DPP Taipei City councilors, who accused zoo officials of treating animals with two different standards.

The city zoo plans to house the pair of pandas in a “luxurious mansion,” while keeping other animals in small, shabby cages, city councilors Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) and Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) alleged on Friday, claiming that an “M-shaped” society was forming at Taipei Zoo.

An “M-shaped” society refers to the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the country and a dwindling middle class as more people cannot keep up with the rising cost of living given stagnating wages.

PRESIDENTIAL SUITE

The city councilors said that the panda facility would occupy a land area of more than 1,400m2, and each of the pandas — if they could come to Taipei for a “long stay” — would occupy a room as large as a “presidential suite” in a five-star hotel.

In comparison, a Burmese python at the zoo lives in a 6.6m2 glass exhibition box, while the Asian yellow pond turtle — a protected amphibian native to Taiwan — is kept together with other types of turtles in one glass tank, Hsu said.

Wu criticized the zoo for placing more importance on boosting tourism than on animal conservation and public education.
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