Moscow Zoo expects to get giant panda from China

BEIJING, November 1. /TASS/. Moscow Zoo Director Svetlana Akulova said on Wednesday she hoped that the Chinese government would make a decision to transfer a giant panda to the Russian capital. "I believe that we may also get a [giant] panda in the future. We are doing everything possible for that," the Moscow Zoo director told TASS. "A final decision depends on the Chinese government. We are ready to participate in the program for the breeding and the preservation of this rare animal species," she said. "We also hope to get golden takins [goat antelopes] and black-necked cranes. We also show interest in golden monkeys - there are no these animals in Europe at all and we want precisely this species to join the Moscow Zoo,’ the director said. Commenting on a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Zoos of Moscow and Beijing in 2018-2020 signed on Wednesday in the Chinese capital, she noted that there were plans to eventually "take up the scientific aspect and cooperate with China under nature conservation projects." "We are actively developing educative activity - we are opening an academy, obtaining an educational license in November and we hope that staff members of the Beijing Zoo will be coming to us for education and an exchange of experience - this is quite interesting practice," she noted. The Russian delegation led by Deputy Moscow Mayor Leonid Pechatnikov is on a visit in the Chinese capital on October 31 - November 3 to take part in the events devoted to the Days of Moscow in Beijing. Giant pandas are the rarest species. Only slightly more than 1,500 of them have remained in wildlife in the mountains of China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. While the experiments for the breeding of these animals with the beautiful black and white (or the white and brown) fur are yielding some results, efforts have failed so far to make considerable progress in increasing their population. The giant panda is not only one of China’s symbols. It is also depicted on the emblem of the World Wildlife Fund. Read more