Zoo team go east to see if pandas are bearing up

OFFICIALS from Edinburgh Zoo are planning a trip to China this month to continue talks about bringing a pair of giant pandas to Scotland.

David Windmill, the chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and Iain Valentine, head of animals and conservation at the zoo, signed a letter of intent with officials at the Wolong Panda Conservation and Research Centre in Sichuan province on a visit in May just a week before the earthquake hit the region.

The zoo has sent money and communications equipment to help in the aftermath of the disaster. The Scotsman has learned they now plan to travel to China to see the impact of the earthquake at first hand and offer further assistance.

Mr Windmill said he and his team remain optimistic about bringing a breeding pair of pandas to Scotland in spring 2009, in time for the zoo's centenary.

"We remain confident that we will get the pandas," he said. "(The earthquake] could speed up the process, if the centre is looking for places to rehome its pandas, or it may delay it.

"We'd like to get information on the situation first hand, and find out exactly what the impact will be on our plans."

The zoo had been hoping that a formal agreement on the loan of the pandas could be signed by Gordon Brown during the Beijing Olympics this summer.

The Wolong Centre is close to the epicentre of the earthquake, which struck on 12 May, leaving 87,000 people dead or missing.

Five members of staff at the centre died and many were injured. One of the centre's pandas was killed; another is missing.

Mr Valentine added: "The facilities at Wolong have been very badly damaged, and there is still ongoing danger of aftershocks and landslides."

The majority of Wolong's 64 pandas and their cubs have been rehomed. The Chinese Ministry of Forestries and Construction is now looking for a suitable location within Wolong National Park to re-establish the main breeding centre, having decided not to rebuild on the same site.

Wolong was the biggest of China's Panda Conservation and Research Centres and its state-of-the-art panda hospital has been destroyed, along with research and medical records.

"It is looking very bad in Wolong," Mr Valentine said. "A lot of bamboo has been wiped out, and areas where pandas were resting in caves have been destroyed. Bodies of wild pandas have already been discovered. It could be that anything up to 90 per cent of the wild population is affected in some way."

David Windmill said: "If ever there was a justification for a captive breeding programme, it's (an event such as] this."