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Council to review rival zoo applications for pandas

“Fishing methods are becoming more and more advanced, so fish stocks are plummeting everywhere.”

— Cheng Ming-yuan, Penghu County fisheries bureau director

The Council of Agriculture will review two applications to house a pair of pandas that China has offered Taiwan, an official at the Forestry Bureau said yesterday.

Fang Guo-yun (方國運), chief of the Forestry Bureau’s department of nature conservation, said a panel would be established on Thursday to review the applications by the Taipei Zoo and the Leofoo Safari Zoo in Hsinchu County.

The Leofoo Safari Zoo has recently signed an agreement with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to exchange information, experiences and ideas on conservation, the zoo said.

Taichung City has also shown interest in housing the pandas, but has not applied, Fang said.

“The key points of the review will include the training of the animals’ keepers and veterinarians, as well as the facilities ... where the pandas will be kept,” he said.

The pandas were offered after a visit by then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to China in 2005.

The offer was rejected by the council under the former Democratic Progressive Party government, which said Taiwan did not have facilities for the animals.

After President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was elected in March, he said he would be pleased to see the pandas come to Taiwan.


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