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Delays allow beloved panda to stay in San Diego a little longer
Monday February 17, 2003
SAN DIEGO (AP) After a blitz of newspaper, radio and TV ads
urging residents to say one last goodbye to Hua Mei, the giant
panda remains in town nearly six months after she was scheduled to
leave for China.
Hua Mei, the first U.S.-born giant panda to survive into
adolescence, can look forward to three more months of munching
bamboo and panda biscuits at the San Diego Zoo after a number of
delays, including paperwork problems in Washington and
temperamental weather.
High temperatures made it difficult to comfortably move her last
fall, while cold weather in China prevents her from leaving now.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took longer than expected to
authorize the permits required to move the panda.
Zoo officials expect Hua Mei will end up making the trip
sometime in May. She will have a permanent home at the Wolong
Nature Reserve, where her mother, Bai Yun, was born and her father,
Shi Shi, was taken from the wild.
Meanwhile, Gao Gao, the zoo's new male panda and Shi Shi's
replacement, has arrived. He has been in mandatory isolation at the
zoo hospital for the past few weeks and is expected to make his
public debut in the next few weeks.
Under the terms of the 12-year loan that brought Shi Shi and Bai
Yun to the San Diego Zoo in 1996, the bears remain the property of
China. As Shi Shi's replacement, Gao Gao will stay in San Diego at
least six more years, zoo spokeswoman Sharon Dewar said.
The loan agreement also specifies that all pandas born at the
zoo be sent to China when they turn 3. Hua Mei's third 3rd birthday
was Aug. 21.
``The Chinese want to make a big thing of Hua Mei,'' said Carmi
Penny, the San Diego Zoo's curator of mammals. ``Her arrival is a
fairly significant event. It's the first time a panda born outside
the country has come to China.''
On the Net:
http://www.sandiegozoo.com
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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