How much does a giant panda cost?

 To raise giant pandas, you first need "start-up capital." The giant pandas on the earth are concentrated in China, and if zoos in other countries want to own them, they need to rent them from China: generally, the minimum rent is a pair, the lease period is 10 years, and the annual rent for each giant panda is generally 1 million U.S. dollars (1 dollar=Approximately 7 CNY). If a giant panda gives birth to cubs, it will have to pay China an additional $500,000 for each cub.

Paying rent is not enough, you also have to "buy a house" for the giant panda. For example, the giant panda pavilion of Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo, which has been rated as an excellent example in China, covers an area of about 3,000 square meters. The inner exhibition hall adopts a central air-conditioning system and has pools and long running water for pandas to bathe and drink. There are also pools and water in the external exhibition area. Use Wusen to cool down and moisturize. In 2014, the Paradise Zoo in Belgium invested 10 million euros (1 euro is about 8 yuan) to welcome the giant pandas Hao Hao and Xing Hui; the Tiepak Zoo in Berlin, Germany spent about 10 million euros, which is enough to account for the entire company. 1/3 of the zoo’s annual expenses in a normal year; Australia’s Adelaide Zoo spent about $5.38 million and was saddled with high debt.

In addition to housing, giant pandas also spend a lot of money on food. Giant pandas love to eat bamboo, but their ability to digest bamboo is not strong. In addition, the nutritional value of bamboo itself is not high. Therefore, giant pandas need to spend nearly half of their day eating. In the season of eating bamboo shoots, giant pandas generally eat 30 to 60 kilograms a day; in the season of eating bamboo leaves and stems, the daily food intake is 10 to 14 kilograms.

Giant pandas are also picky eaters, which means that the bamboo prepared by the zoo must be twice as much as the giant pandas eat. Preparing bamboo takes time, effort and money. When giant pandas Tiantian and Yangguang arrived in Edinburgh, England, in 2011, the local government had to spend £70,000 a year to import fresh bamboo shoots from the Netherlands. Calculated at the exchange rate at that time, the daily food expenses for the two giant pandas were as high as about 1,900 yuan, which accounted for nearly 1/7 of the entire zoo's food expenses. By 2014, the cost of imported bamboo shoots had risen to 100,000 pounds a year. In order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Edinburgh Zoo had to plant 3,000 bamboo bushes.

How much does a giant panda make?

The cost of raising giant pandas is high, but the benefits that giant pandas bring to zoos cannot be underestimated. For example, the Edinburgh Zoo suffered a loss of 1.2 million pounds in 2011. After Tiantian and Sunshine arrived in Edinburgh at the end of that year, the number of visitors surged by 51%. By 2012, the zoo turned a profit, with a profit of 2.4 million pounds. Based on an average zoo ticket price of 13.5 pounds and a toy price of about 20 pounds, the two giant pandas brought 4.1 million pounds in revenue to Edinburgh Zoo in one year. This figure accounted for the total revenue of its affiliated institution, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, in 2012. Nearly 30% of operating income.

Compared with the income, the 10-year lease signed by the zoo for 6 million pounds does not seem expensive. In 2013, less than half a year after giant pandas arrived at the Toronto Zoo in Canada, they attracted more than 1 million visitors, more than the entire number of people the zoo received in the previous year. In Beauval, France, giant pandas increased the number of visitors to the local zoo by nearly Double the number of visitors, from 600,000 to 1.6 million.

The most enthusiastic people are the Japanese people. When Xiang Xiang, the giant panda at Tokyo Ueno Zoo, was born, more than 110,000 people made reservations to see her. Before Xiang Xiang returned to China in February 2023, because so many people came to say goodbye to her, the park had to organize visits by lottery every day. , the probability of winning is only 1/70.

Near Ueno Zoo, giant panda-themed bakeries, coffee shops, and restaurants can be found everywhere. Giant panda peripherals are also diverse, and basic souvenirs such as dolls, pendants, jewelry, and stationery are constantly being updated. The "Ueno Tourism Alliance" formed by local shopping streets has even produced a "Giant Panda Map" with the locations of various giant panda products to help giant panda enthusiasts "accurate consumption."

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, a professor of theoretical economics at Kansai University, estimated that in just the first three and a half years of Xiangxiang’s life, it brought economic benefits to the local area of 53.9 billion yen (1 yen is about 0.05 yuan). .

The significance of giant pandas is not to make money

However, giant pandas are not always a cash cow.

Some scholars estimate that at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia mentioned earlier, the arrival of giant pandas brought an additional income of US$4.6 million to US$9.2 million to the zoo in the first two years, but the impact in subsequent years was not obvious. Finland's Akhteri Zoo was also hit by the COVID-19 epidemic and its income dropped sharply, so it had to decide to return the giant pandas to China in advance.

It is worth mentioning that during the more than 10 years that giant pandas Tiantian and Guangguang have lived in Edinburgh, the park team has tried many times to mate them, but all ended in failure. If they give birth to Xiang Xiang like giant pandas Bili and Xian Nv at Ueno Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo may have a new lease on life.

At present, the number of giant pandas bred and bred in China has increased significantly. However, compared with the "cutes" in breeding bases and zoos, the protection of wild giant panda populations has not received enough public attention. The protection of giant panda habitats is not only related to the fate of giant pandas as a species, but also related to the fate of many precious large animals that share habitats with giant pandas.

For example, according to research results by a team from Peking University, the number of large and medium-sized herbivores and medium-sized carnivores is also increasing in giant panda nature reserves. The giant panda, which has attracted much attention, also holds up a protective umbrella for its "neighbors".

In general, what giant pandas need most is not a "mansion" but a free and vast wild home.