The result of long negotiations, the arrival of a couple of pandas at Beauval zoo in 2012 gave the Loir-et-Cher park a European dimension. A costly investment... and profitable?

What image would we have of pandas if one of them had knocked down the President of the Republic with a kick? Then head of state in office in the 1970s, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had wanted to "show the courage of a president" by entering the cage of Yen Yen, one of the first two pandas to arrive at the Vincennes Zoo. "In the second, a panda jumped on me. Luckily there was a guard who caught the panda and I escaped," he said in 2013.

Phew, the Republic is safe and the panda remains, in the imagination, this placid ball of fur adored by the crowds. The proof: since the death of Yen Yen in 2000, France had no more pandas to show to the public.

Things repaired in 2012 when the zoo of Beauval in the Loir-et-Cher, triumphantly welcomes Yuan Zi and Huan Huan. The first gave birth to a baby in 2018 and now to twins, born this Sunday evening. None of these animals belong to the zoo or to France. The adults are loaned to China for ten years and the young are destined to return to a Chinese nature reserve, where the animal has an almost sacred aura.

From 40,000 to 1.6 million visitors

Beyond the preservation of the species, the panda is a well-known diplomatic weapon, used in particular by Maoist China to soften relations with cold countries. The Washington Zoo pandas arrived in the United States in 1972, just after Richard Nixon's historic visit to Communist China.

As the panda population dwindled as honorary gifts were received, China moved to a ten-year loan system. In reality, a panda is expensive. Apart from China, only about twenty countries have the chance to welcome these plantigrades.

For Beauval, it's consecration. “We have gone in 40 years from 40,000 visitors to 1.6 million visitors. From 3 employees to 900”, welcomed BFM Business, in early 2020, boss Rodolphe Delord. Created as a modest ornithological park by his mother in 1980, the zoo has grown and has always welcomed more animals.

Huge cost

Pandas are a different story. Opacity generally reigns over contracts with Beijing. Beyond the political negotiations started in 2006, it is a substantial investment for the zoo, closely supervised by the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, in particular for the layout of the cages. The investments are counted in millions of euros, not counting the marketing campaigns to attract crowds.

As for the "rental" of pandas, it costs around 800,000 euros per year. To this must be added the food costs of several tens of thousands of euros each year. Although carnivorous, the panda mainly eats bamboo, which is poor in nutrients. The animal must therefore eat… a lot. 60,000 euros of bamboo per year. For a zoo, the panda is by far the most expensive animal to maintain.

Crazy sums that some zoos have had trouble digesting. In Australia, the Adelaide Zoo has been crippled with debt to accommodate its pandas while some American zoos have long stuck their tongues out over financial demands and lack of profitability. At Edinburgh Zoo, there is even talk of sending the pandas back to China next year after a difficult financial year linked to the Covid-19 crisis.

Maintaining interest

In Beauval, the pandas couple was nevertheless the engine of a turnover which has continued to swell to reach 64 million euros a year before the crisis.

And if a panda is synonymous with affluence, the challenge is above all to maintain the interest of the public. For this, nothing better than babies especially since the animal is known to have a libido as peaceful as him. The new birth was also permitted thanks to insemination. A small biological miracle which generally entails a new royalty for zoos in China…

For the Beauval animal park, pandas remain a major element of its success and the challenge now is to keep the two hosts a little longer, supposed to go back to China next year. The Washington Zoological Park obtained a three-year extension last year against an annual annuity of 500,000 dollars. For his part, Emmanuel Macron has already discussed this subject with his Chinese counterpart for the Beauval park.

Because if the costs are enormous, seeing your pandas leave will inevitably be a blow to the image of the park. Only consolation, this return to the house allows to come to inflate the contingent in freedom. Since 2016, the panda is no longer considered an "endangered" species but as "vulnerable".