The Student looks at the debate which asks whether the cost of Edinburgh's pandas is too much to bear.

There is perhaps no other animal that better represents the plight of endangered animals worldwide as the panda. These monochrome fluff balls preen themselves on many a successful conservation poster, most famously the WWF logo, but the glamorous image associated with their conservation is quite far removed from the bears that eat shoots and leaves in Chinese forests.

Despite their cuteness factor being astronomical, pandas’ attempt at survival in the wild is quite pathetic. They survive off one food source, bamboo, they live in a country struggling to sustain their crowded human population, they reproduce very slowly in the wild and their beauty and meat makes them a target for poachers.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is spending around £640,000 a year for a decade so that Scotland can boast about Yang Guang and Tian Tian’s presence in Edinburgh Zoo. Additionally, the enclosure cost £250,000 and importing most of the bamboo from a special plantation in Amsterdam will cost about £70,000 a year.

Is all this money being spent on real conservation? In 2008, Salmond wrote to the UK foreign secretary, David Milliband, urging him to lobby the Chinese ministers to send the pandas to Edinburgh using the line “this is primarily a commercial transaction.”

The pandas also represent how Scotland is sowing seeds while the British-alliance sun is still shining, so that Salmond can reap the benefits if the independence referendum goes his way. The Chief Executive of Edinburgh Zoo, Hugh Roberts, said the pandas are “a highly visible statement of the growing momentum to improve international relations between the UK and China.”

The pandas are a breeding pair, and having baby pandas in the UK would bring in enormous revenue. A video of a baby panda merely sneezing on Youtube has alone garnered 140 million views.

The Zoo refused to comment on the plans on breeding the pandas, though it is believed that they will follow the research done by the Chengdu Panda Base in China, who increased their panda cub survival rate from 30% in 2001 to 67% in 2007 and developed artificial insemination techniques.

Female pandas are only in a receptive ‘oestrus’ state for mating for 72 hours, with a ‘fertility window’ of 24-48 hours. Also, because the male pandas have short penises, pandas must mate in a very specific position for the female panda to get pregnant. Unfortunately, captive pandas seem to be oblivious to this position.

Edinburgh Zoo is confident that they have the skills and expertise to add their names to the worldwide list of zoos that have successfully bred pandas. Both Yang Guang and Tian Tian have been parents before, but never with each other. Luckily, pandas are polygamous, but if they are not a compatible match for each other, the Zoo will have to resort to artificial insemination.

The Chinese government have been loaning pandas since the 1980s. These first loans were purely commercial, with the World Wildlife Fund protesting that the two to four month loans had no gain for the pandas.

Richard Block, the WWF director of public programs at the time said “Short-term loans focus attention on commercial gain. The zoos are using pandas to bring visitors through the gate without any real education or conservation programs attached. They are carting a highly endangered animal halfway around the world.”

They have since rethought their loaning policy and now whenever a panda boards the FedEx Panda Express (yes, there is a special plane for chauffeuring pandas) the media hype surrounding them scrutinises the conservation intentions of those involved.

The money the zoo is spending on loaning the pandas is funding panda conservation projects in China, but the question is whether research done in ex-situ captive panda projects has any relationship to the problems the wild pandas are facing with deforestation, poaching and a low reproduction rate due to a sparse population and a slow ‘oestrus’ cycle.

2012 is a very important year for pandas, not just because two of them are shivering in Scotland, but also two weeks ago six carefully selected pandas were released into a semi-wild environment called China Panda Valley.

There has only been one previous attempt to release a panda into the wild, at the Wolong Breeding Centre. The five year old Xiang Xiang was selected because a strong young male was thought to be the best choice for a pioneer panda. Unfortunately he survived less than a year in the wild, despite being trained for three years to build his own den, forage for food and mark his territory.

He was ‘rejected’ by wild pandas and the broken ribs and defensive wounds found on his body led officials to suggest that he fell from a high place after a fight with his aggressive wild relatives.

The Chengdu Panda Base is ready to try reintroduction again. Dr. Qi Dunwu, Giant Panda Specialist, told CCTV news, “We spent nearly one year monitoring and assessing these 108 pandas. They are around four years old, relative to 10 to 12 in human years. We selected them based on their genetic background, sex ratio, health condition, and many other strict factors. The six pandas chosen are very healthy and ready to move to the China Panda Valley.”

The pandas walked into China Panda Valley on January 11. However, voices such as Chris Packham, a British conservationist and BBC wildlife documentary presenter, have criticised the amount of money being spent on flagship conservation animals such as the panda when he considers their long-term existence in the wild as a lost cause.

“I would eat the last panda if I could have all the money we have spent on panda conservation put back on the table for me to do more sensible things with.” Packham pleads the case that the money which the glamorous ‘big’ species such as the tiger, rhino and whale bring in for specific conservation movements distracts funding from projects that affect the wildlife people can see and enjoy locally.

He does have a point. The WWF website shows a panda with big eyes and a confused expression staring woefully at the user, followed by a slideshow of other beautiful photos of polar bears, orangutans and big cats. Realistically, the majority of people who click ‘Adopt Now’ will never see these animals in the wild.

Packham’s conservation efforts focus on the more attainable wildlife that we could actually enjoy, as president of The Hawk Conservancy Trust and the Bat Conservation Trust, vice-president of the RSPB and The Brent Lodge Bird & Wildlife Trust. Although his opinions on the pandas are rather unorthodox, the issue that a lot of beautiful lesser-known species are losing money to the ‘cuter’ species is very valid.

It’s a strange kind of natural selection, with the most beautiful animals having the greatest chance of survival. Biodiversity and the roles of smaller animals such as birds, fish, beavers, bats and especially insects is essential for the long-term preservation of wildlife on earth, but most people don’t share any enthusiasm for the smaller animals like spiders and swallows. Sadly, the only way to raise money for the conservation of smaller species is for them to get small shares of the donations given for the animals featured in programmes like Frozen Planet.

This is the best role in conservation that Yang Guang and Tian Tian will have. It is very unlikely that panda cubs born in Edinburgh will ever set foot in China Panda Valley, and it is difficult enough for them to be born in the first place. The millions of people who will flock through the zoo and fall in love with these eastern treasures will be the ones who donate money to conservation projects, but they will also be the ones who choose to adopt an animal instead of donating to the thousands of other worthwhile charities competing for their attention.

Although caged animals in zoos may not directly help their estranged family in the wild, the money they bring in to research programs and reserves that preserve wild habitats from the people who fall for the pacing tiger or bamboo-munching panda, is crucial in saving wild species from going extinct.