Do zoos have to pay for pandas?

The Chinese government, which gifted the first pair of pandas — Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling — to the U.S., now leases the pandas out for a typical 10-year renewable term. The annual fee ranges from $1 million to $2 million per pair, plus mandatory costs to build and maintain facilities to house the animals.



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The Chinese government owns nearly all the giant pandas on earth. And American zoos will shell out up to $1 million a year to rent just one. Most sign 10-year panda diplomacy contracts, and if any baby cubs are born, they pay an additional one-time $400,000 baby tax.

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The Chinese government, which gifted the first pair of pandas - Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling - to the U.S., now leases the pandas out for a typical 10-year renewable term. The annual fee ranges from $1 million to $2 million per pair, plus mandatory costs to build and maintain facilities to house the animals.

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American zoos do not actually own the pandas that we enjoy going to visit. China rents pandas out to the tune of $1 million a year. Zoos typically sign a 10-year contract, which means that at the end of that contract, a zoo will have spent $10 million renting one panda. And any cubs that are born while at the zoo?

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Both parents and any offspring remained under the ownership of China. In December 2020, the Zoo announced that giant pandas would continue to live at the Smithsonian's National Zoo through the end of 2023.

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We have read the enlightening NY Times article about how pandas in U.S. zoos are like money pits, though adorable ones. The reason is because China leases the each panda to zoos for $2 million (in panda cost and research).

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For starters, per panda, zoos have to pay an annual rental fee to China that could be $1 million a year. Then, it costs an extra $400,000 if any cubs are born (and they must be returned–though not immediately). In addition, just the enclosure could run $8 million.

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With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.

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Three US zoos currently host giant pandas: the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC has three, the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee has one and Zoo Atlanta in Georgia has four.

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Panda diplomacy is the practice of sending giant pandas from China to other countries as a tool of diplomacy. From 1941 to 1984, China gave a gift of pandas to other countries. After a change in policy in 1984, pandas were leased instead of given as a gift.

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China began to offer pandas to other nations only on ten-year lease. The standard lease terms include a fee of up to US$1 million per year and a provision that any cubs born during the lease period be the property of the People's Republic of China.

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The zoo claims that this is because of a three-year contract it has with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

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Beijing currently lends out 65 pandas to 19 countries through “cooperative research programs” with a stated mission to better protect the vulnerable species. The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around age 3 or 4.

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With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.

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Before the 1980s China gifted pandas, but today they are offered strictly on a loan basis. They are usually leased to the host country for roughly $1 million a year, plus the cost of building a panda facility. The leasing fees are said to cover the costs of giant panda “conservation” efforts in China.

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China technically owns every panda in the world. The pandas are rented to zoos throughout the world for sometimes as much as one million dollars per year.

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Any cub born to the pandas belongs to the Chinese government but can be leased for an additional fee until it reaches mating age. Over the 50 years of American panda loan agreements, the arrangement has hit more than one rough patch.

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Pandas are only native to China, so all pandas in American zoos are on loan from the Chinese government. Even those born on American soil are considered property of China.

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In 1984, China ended panda gifts, switching to a policy of high-priced loans. This history has made Mexico one of a few countries able to keep locally born panda cubs. Since 1985, the loan program has required that zoos return any cubs to China.

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Pandas are a threatened species, still just one step away from the classification of endangered. But along with China's growing efforts to protect a massive area of forested land, captive breeding has, for now, managed to avert their extinction.

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