I'll be surprised if Chinese send giant pandas to crisis-hit zoo, expert warns

Published on Sunday 10 April 2011 15:54

A PANDA expert has warned that the management crisis at Edinburgh Zoo could jeopardise a deal struck with China to bring two of the endangered species to Scotland.

Henry Nicholls said the suspension of key figures at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) could lead the Chinese to pull out of the agreement.

Iain Valentine, the man who had helped broker the deal to bring two giant pandas to the zoo later this year, was suspended last week pending an investigation into "matters of a very serious nature".

A second member of the management board, believed to be director of development Anthony McReavy, also left his job at RZSS, which owns the attraction. The zoo's interim chief operating officer, Gary Wilson, was suspended in March.

Mr Nicholls, author of the Way of the Panda, told The Scotsman he would be "surprised if the pandas come in the current climate".

He said: "It takes years and years to build up an academic relationship between the recipient zoo and the loaning institution.

"They would have been going over what they were going to research when they got them, which is an extremely important part of the loan. Iain Valentine, as far as I know, was crucial to that process."

Mr Valentine and Mr McReavy were helping run the zoo while an investigation took place. The investigation, which the zoo says does not involve the police, relates to money syphoned from the 4.5 million Budongo Trail monkey house, it has been claimed.

Mr Nicholls said: "I think China can have a lot of confidence in Edinburgh generally, but they will want to see the person they have built up this professional relationship and trust with, and if Mr Valentine was not involved then I should imagine that the Chinese would be very careful. They would want to see that Edinburgh has got everything in place before they sent the pandas."

He said that panda contracts drawn up by the Chinese were comprehensive and detailed, and that it would be "strange" if the they had not written in a clause allowing them to nullify the deal if there was sufficient concern about the receiving zoo.

"At the moment, Edinburgh needs to quickly resolve the situation," said Mr Nicholls. "In the worst-case scenario - where several key people involved that the Chinese people dealt with and trusted disappear from the scene - then I would imagine the Chinese would have thought of that possibility and covered it in the contract."

A spokeswoman for the RZSS said: "The deal is absolutely 100 per cent. There is no danger of pandas not coming to Scotland."