Lost amid the goodbye parties and hoopla as 4-year-old giant panda Tai Shan jets off to China is the somewhat harsh reality that the National Zoo is losing its gravy train with no new draw immediately ready to take his place.
Tai Shan will board a Boeing 777 FedEx freight plane to Chengdu on Thursday with Mei Lan, a female panda from the Atlanta zoo. They are off to breed and save their endangered species.
“This is the right thing to do,” Steven Monfort, acting National Zoo director, told The Examiner. “His future is brighter going back. We were glad to have him for the time we had him.”
But the zoo will be hard-pressed to replace Tai Shan’s allure.
The Friends of the National Zoo, which handles all merchandising, concessions and fundraising, generated $11.1 million in 2004, according to its tax filings. Tai Shan was born at the zoo on July 9, 2005. For that year, the revenues jumped to $12.2 million. By 2006, revenues climbed to $16.9 million and, in 2007, $16.3 million.
Tai Shan also was a boon for attendance. The zoo welcomed about 800,000 additional visitors a year in 2006 and 2007.
Even with Tai Shan gone, Monfort said, “I don’t think we anticipate a large drop-off” in attendance given the National Zoo is still panda-rich. Tai Shan’s parents, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, remain, though their $10 million, 10-year loan agreement expires in December. Monfort said he anticipates “no problems” getting an extension from China.
And with “a little bit of luck,” he said, the zoo will soon welcome a new cub to the $30 million-plus Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat. Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated last month.
“I’ll still go to the zoo because I like pandas and because his mom is still here,” 22-year-old Devaughn Brown of Anacostia said Wednesday, as he angled for one last look at Tai Shan. “Tai Shan was a big asset though, I must admit.”
The Smithsonian isn’t banking on another panda baby. Monfort said the next big draw at the National Zoo will be elephants.
The expansive, $50 million Elephant Trails exhibit, featuring new outdoor habitats, lengthy exercise trail and indoor “community center,” will house up to 10 endangered Asian elephants. It is expected to open in about two years. Construction also is under way on a $30 million seals and sea lions exhibit featuring a wave machine, tide pools and underwater viewing.
— Snowglobes
— Clothing, face masks
— Jewelry, magnets
— Soccer and baseballs
Examiner news intern Alana Goodman contributed to this report.
