The Toronto Zoo has seen a boost in visitors this spring thanks to two very cuddly panda bear cubs. Named Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue (which translates to “Canadian Hope” and “Canadian Joy,” respectively), the twin cubs were born last October to Er Shun, one of two giant pandas on loan from China.
A high-profile photo op with Justin Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne earlier this month marked the cubs’ 100-day birthday, and since March 12, the pandas have been available for public viewing every day.
“We’ve had a wonderful reception, great responses from people and we’re in a very fortunate circumstance because not only do we have the panda cubs, we also have a rhino calf, Juno the polar bear cub and four white lion cubs as well,” says Jennifer Tracey, a Toronto Zoo spokesperson. “When we have breeding success with our conservation program, it’s always something to celebrate. We just happen to have a boom right now.”
Canada’s largest zoo is optimistic about its recent expansion of baby animals and their ability to attract visitors. But the reality is the Scarborough park has seen falling attendance rates since 2013 (the year the giant pandas, Er Shun and Da Mao, arrived from China). Box office numbers have also suffered, with admission revenue losses of more than $600,000 in 2015.
“I think the public just doesn’t want to be seeing this anymore, even though zoos breed their animals just to get those cute babies to try to interest the public,” Roxanne Gervais says. Gervais is a member of the Ontario Captive Animal Watch, an animal rights organization that’s determined to change our province’s substandard laws.
“A lot of these animals just cannot survive in captivity. They can survive in [the same way] that we can survive in a room. If handed food and water, we could survive, but we wouldn’t be thriving. And these animals can’t thrive in captivity.”
Toronto Zoo
When the panda bear cubs were newborn, they required 24-hour care from Toronto Zoo staff.
Pandas, however, suffer very low birth rates. Female pandas have a short 36 to 40 hour window each year to get pregnant, and male pandas are notoriously lazy about reproducing. Thus, pandas held in captivity – of which there are around 300 worldwide – are routinely artificially inseminated.
Tracey says that it’s amazing the Toronto Zoo was successful in its breeding program at all just one year into having the giant pandas. “It’s really a testament to the professional staff here,” she adds.
The Toronto Zoo has less than than two years left on its lease on the pandas. They’ll relocate to the Calgary Zoo in 2018 as part of an agreement that splits the animals’ 10-year loan to Canada between two cities. The 87-year-old zoo recently made headlines after a river otter was tangled in a pair of pants and drowned. The trousers were introduced to the 12-year-old male otter by employees as an “enrichment item,” according to zoo officials.
“The obvious thing that struck me was why are you giving an otter a pair of pants as a form of enrichment? That was just so bizarre. But again, at Calgary Zoo, there’s examples of trainers leaving knives in the enclosures,” Gervais says, referring to a high-profile mishap in 2009 where an adult gorilla brandished a knife in front of zoo visitors.
A chain of safety-related issues, including several animals getting crushed in hydraulic doors, led to an external audit of the zoo compiled by the Canadian and U.S. branches of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2010.
“Their assessment report corroborated all the concerns of groups like ours that we had expressed for many years, and in fact, it showed that things were much, much worse,” says Rob Laidlaw, executive director of Zoo Check. “There were promises made that things would change at the Calgary Zoo, that all of these problems would be dealt with. But now, we have this incident, and one has to wonder, have those systemic problems been dealt with? Is this just an isolated incident?”
As preventable as the otter’s death was, Laidlaw doesn’t expect careless accidents to happen to the pandas once they’re relocated, especially with an entire nation watching. “They’re going to be making sure that every T is crossed, every I is dotted to make sure everything’s ok,” he says. “These pandas are very valuable.”
Toronto Zoo
Er Shun, one of two giant pandas on loan to Canada, will be relocated to Calgary with her cubs in 2018.
As far as Toronto Zoo staff are concerned, Tracey says they aren’t apprehensive about moving the animals to Calgary.
“We work closely with Calgary Zoo on a number of projects,” she says. “When we received the pandas, our keeping staff who have been working with them have been reaching out to their colleagues around the globe who also have pandas to learn about best practices, knowledge and information.”
The Toronto Zoo is already looking ahead to when the pandas are gone. Tracey says zoo executives are currently writing up a master plan for the next 15 years, which includes finding ways to appeal to a broader audience (currently, attractions are mainly directed at families with young children) and building a state-of-the-art wildlife health centre to replace the existing animal hospital.
“We’ll have observation rooms and viewing windows so you’ll be able to see into the veterinary care, the science that’s going on in our reproductive labs,” she explains. “That’s a lot of the conservation work that goes on behind the scenes that the average person doesn’t see.”
An Amur tiger exhibit will replace the current panda enclosure. Unfortunately there is no plan for the panda cubs to return unless further arrangements are discussed with the Chinese. Mayor John Tory will negotiate the future of the cubs during a trade mission to Chongquing, China, in April. At the Toronto Zoo board management’s February meeting, board members voted to allocate up to $16,000 of the zoo’s operating budget in order to send up to three board members to accompany Tory.
Tracey says in the meantime, the zoo will turn its attention to Canadian species conservation. “As part of our mandate for fighting extinction, there’s a lot of species in our own backyard that need a lot of help. If we can’t do it, no one else will be able to help,” she says.
michelled@nowtoronto.com | @michdas
