Calgary pandas not cleared for travel to China as zoo’s bamboo supply runs low

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When Er Shun and Da Mao, a pair of pandas, arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in 2013, they were greeted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and celebrated as a sign of a deepening connection between Canada and China. Now, nearly seven years later, the relationship between the two countries has soured and a global pandemic has left the two animal ambassadors with no easy route home.

In a sign of how much the pandas’ circumstances have shifted since their much-ballyhooed arrival, the Calgary Zoo is warning it will soon be scrambling for bamboo to feed them.

The zoo, where the pandas have resided for the past two years, has been searching for bamboo – the animals’ main source of food – since the COVID-19 pandemic strained airlines and shipping routes, putting pressure on the zoo’s supply. As it races to find more, the zoo is urging the Canadian and Chinese governments to expedite permits to return the pandas to their home country.

The zoo said in May that the animals would be sent back to China, where bamboo is plentiful. But it has been unable to obtain the necessary international travel permits, the zoo said on Wednesday, citing changes to China’s import laws and access to quarantine facilities due to the pandemic. An emergency bamboo supplier in British Columbia is expected to run out by late September.

“We’ll have to start scrambling,” said Greg Royer, chief operating officer at the Calgary Zoo. “If on September 30 we can’t get any more bamboo, we will literally have one person spending their entire day and week making sure that there is bamboo and calling in favours from all over the place, going to great lengths to make sure the animals are fed.”

Fresh bamboo makes up 99 per cent of a panda’s diet, with each adult consuming about 40 kilograms daily. The zoo typically receives two shipments of bamboo each week. Before the virus struck, China-based Hainan Airlines flew freshly cut bamboo directly to Toronto, which was then rerouted to Calgary. But the pandemic has limited flights around the world, making cargo space scarce.

It then reached out to the San Diego Zoo – whose pandas went home to China early last year – for its bamboo supply. The California-based zoo shipped the stalks on trucks, but border closures caused several delays which left the panda food sitting in warehouses. Fresh, edible bamboo expires after a week at most, making delivery delays devastating, Mr. Royer said.

It turned to a bamboo supplier in British Columbia, one of the few farms in Canada that grows the plant. But its field yields a small amount in comparison to the large shipments that formerly came from China. As the colder, darker autumn months set in, the farm won’t be able to produce enough food to feed the pandas. The zoo is hoping the pair will be home by then.

“We believe the best and safest place for Er Shun and Da Mao to be during these challenging and unprecedented times is where bamboo is abundant and easy to access,” the zoo’s president and chief executive Dr. Clément Lanthier said in a release. “The continued delays in international permitting is putting the health and welfare of these two beautiful giant pandas in jeopardy.”

As part of their decade-long stay in Canada, they spent the first five years at the Toronto Zoo where they birthed two cubs in 2015 – the first giant pandas to be born in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the cubs’ first public appearance in 2016 where the cubs were named Jia Panpan, which means Canadian Hope, and Jia Yueyue, which means Canadian Joy. He said that the panda, a symbol of peace and friendship, was an example of Canada’s relationship with China. After spending the last two years in Calgary, the cubs returned to China in January while their parents continue their stay, which was scheduled to end in 2023.

But over the course of the pandas’ sojourn, the relationship between their home country and their adopted one has frayed, particularly following Canada’s detention of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. arrest warrant. Canada has accused China of arresting two of its citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in retaliation for the confinement of Ms. Meng.

Securing international travel permits for zoo animals is a lengthy process even in the best of times. The cubs’ permits took three months to sort out, but the pandemic has exacerbated wait times, Mr. Royer said. The Chinese government indicated that it may be able to receive the pandas in the first week of October, according to Mr. Royer. But the zoo has also been negotiating with various airlines in hopes that a “hero” will come forward to transport the pandas home.

“It’s a chicken and egg thing, where we can’t commit to a flight until we know that we have the permits, but we can’t get the permits until we’ve committed to a flight,” Mr. Royer said.

The Embassy of People’s Republic of China in Ottawa did not respond to request for comment.

Pandas from China are scattered at zoos around the world, but those countries do not own the rare bear. China reserves the rights to its pandas, even when cubs are born abroad. China loans its pandas for a fee - which is intended for conservation efforts - to its trade partners as a gesture of good will in what is known as “panda diplomacy.”

“Pandas are very popular in zoos,” said Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. “That’s why China has seen that’s it’s able to use pandas as a kind of tool or reward for countries that are well-behaved toward China.”

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