B2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 , 2019
China in recent years, and plans
for the transfer of Bei Bei are un-
derway, the zoo said.
The adults are present under
different terms from their off-
spring.
The National Zoo is hopeful
that China will not leave Washing-
ton pandaless and has said that
collaboration with Chinese scien-
tists on giant pandas has been
highly beneficial for both coun-
ties.
Should giant pandas be caught
up in relations between China and
the United States, it would not be
the first time.
Milestones in the pandas’ ten-
ure in Washington have been cel-
ebrated by top officials from both
countries.
During World War II, China
gave New York’s Bronx Zoo two
pandas in gratitude for American
war relief.
In February 1972, at a dinner in
Beijing, first lady Patricia Nixon
told Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
how fond she was of giant pandas,
the zoo’s website says.
Eager for improved relations
with the United States, the zoo
said, Zhou replied, “I’ll give you
some.”
The visit by Richard Nixon and
his wife had made worldwide
headlines. The United States and
China had been bitter geopolitical
foes for 20 years. And the offer of
the pandas was part of a historic
thaw in relations.
That April, China gave the Unit-
ed States two young giant pandas,
Ling-Ling, a female, and Hsing-
Hsing, a male. Both were
18 months old.
They were a gift, not a loan, the
zoo notes, and “ever since their
arrival, the pandas have symbol-
ized cross-cultural collaboration
between the United States and
China.”
In return, the United States sent
China two musk oxen, Milton and
Matilda, from the San Francisco
Zoo. Musk oxen are shaggy natives
of the Arctic known for their
strong odor.
Zoos in or near several cities —
San Diego, Chicago, St. Louis and
New York — had lobbied to get the
Chinese pandas, but Nixon chose
Washington.
In March, the president dis-
closed his choice in a telephone
call to the Washington Star’s for-
eign editor, Crosby Noyes. The
Star had lobbied on behalf of the
National Zoo. The president then
veered off into a discussion about
panda sex.
“The problem... with pandas is
that they don’t know how to mate,”
Nixon told Noyes in the taped call.
“The only way they learn how is to
watch other pandas mate. You see?
“So they’re keeping them there
PANDAS FROM B1
a little while — these are younger
ones — to sort of learn, you know,
how it’s done,” the president said.
“Now, if they don’t learn it,
they’ll get over here, and nothing
will happen,” he said. “So I just
thought you should just have your
best reporter out there to seewhether these pandas have
learned.”
The pandas arrived that April,
to be greeted by Patricia Nixon
and delirious throngs.
The president called his wife to
see how things went.
“They were just darling,” she toldher husband in the recorded call.
“Everybody raved about them.”
“Do you pet them?” he asked.
“Or they don’t allow that? How
does it work?”
They’re behind glass, she replied,
adding: “They’re comic little things.”
The bears were a delight formore than two decades, draw-
ing millions of visitors and put-
ting the animal on par with
cherry blossoms as a symbol of
Washington.
Ling-Ling died in 1992, and
Hsing-Hsing died in 1999, leaving
the zoo’s giant panda house emptyfor the first time in 27 years. The
pair had several cubs, but none
survived.
In 2000, China sent the zoo Mei
Xiang and Tian Tian on a 10-year,
$10 million lease.
In 2011, an almost five-year
agreement was signed, lowering
the annual lease price from
$1 million to $500,000.
And in 2015, another deal was
reached to keep the giant pandas
in Washington until next year.
Meanwhile, the zoo has been
waiting to find out whether Mei
Xiang is pregnant.
The Panda House closed Aug. 7,
anticipating that she might be
with cub.
Zoo experts said Mei Xiang, 21,
started to show changes in her
behavior this month that might be
a sign that she’s pregnant — or
having a false pregnancy, which is
relatively common in pandas.
Mei Xiang had false pregnan-
cies last year, and in 2017, 2011,
2010, 2009 — possibly in 2008 —
and in 2007 and 2004.
This year, her levels of proges-
terone were rising, and she re-
mained indoors, both signs of pos-
sible pregnancy.
It’s tricky to get a giant panda
pregnant. The animals are in es-
trus for only 24 to 72 hours each
year.
Typically when a female giant
panda is pregnant, she will spend
more time sleeping and less time
eating. Pregnant pandas also be-
come more sensitive to noise,
which is why officials decided to
close the Panda House.
Mei Xiang is licking her paws
and cradling toys — two more
signs that she could be pregnant.
And officials said she has “started
building a small nest of shredded
bamboo in her den,” which she
adds to at night.
In March, Mei Xiang was artifi-
cially inseminated using semen
from Tian Tian. The panda gesta-
tion period usually lasts 90 to
185 days.
Zookeepers have been doing
regular ultrasounds on Mei Xiang
for the past month. She is on the
older side for giving birth, but
officials said some giant pandas
have given birth when they were
older than she is.
Mei Xiang, whose name means
“beautiful fragrance,” has birthed
three surviving cubs: the males Tai
Shan and Bei Bei, and the female
Bao Bao.
Tai Shan was born July 9, 2005,
and now lives in China. Bao Bao
was born Aug. 23, 2013, and was
moved to China in 2017.
The animals are listed as “vul-
nerable” by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature,
the zoo said. There are believed to
be about 1,800 in the wild and
about 500 in captivity worldwide.
[email protected]Pandas’ future at National Zoo unclear as lease end looms
non-summer weekdays — the
study found.
Without an additional cross-
ing, the Bay Bridge would carry
almost 17,000 more vehicles daily
on summer weekends by 2040.
With another bridge near it, daily
weekend traffic on the Bay Bridge
would drop by about 40,000 vehi-
cles in 2040, according to the
study.
“When you look at numbers
like that, that’s a significant dif-
ference,” Maryland Transporta-
tion Authority Executive Direc-
tor Jim Ports said.
While motorists encounter
withering backups at the bridge,
especially on weekends, the
search for where to build an
additional crossing has ignited
concerns in communities along
both sides of the bay. Residents
say another crossing would bring
more congestion to roads that are
already clogged, particularly
with summer beach traffic. The
bridge also is a key commuter
route between the Eastern Shore
and job centers in the Baltimore-
Washington region.
Others worry that a new bridge
would encourage auto-depend-
ent sprawl, harm the ecologically
sensitive shoreline and spoil the
rural feel of whichever Eastern
Shore communities it touches.
One of the three corridors
under consideration would be
just north of the Bay Bridge,
between Pasadena in Anne Arun-
del, Rock Hall in Kent County
and Centreville in Queen Anne’s.
BRIDGE FROM B1
The second would be near the
current bridge. The third would
be to the south, between Crofton
in Anne Arundel and Easton in
Talbot County.
Officials in Easton and St. Mi-
chael’s, two idyllic Eastern Shore
towns that attract weekend shop-
pers and tourists, say their com-
munities can’t absorb the addi-
tional traffic a bridge would
bring.
“We are inundated with traffic
now just about every day of the
week, all through the year,” Eas-
ton Mayor Robert C. Willey said.“Right now, it seems to run more
traffic through the central East-
ern Shore would just be a bottle-
neck that we’d have trouble deal-
ing with.”
St. Michael’s Town Manager
Jean Weisman said she’s still
trying to determine how close
one of the options would come to
the town.
“There’s no way they could
build [connecting roads] through
the town,” Weisman said.
“There’s just no room.”
Regardless of which alignment
the state chooses, it will needlocal support. Under Maryland
law, the state is not allowed to
build a toll bridge or road in
Eastern Shore counties unless
the majority of those county gov-
ernments agree to it.
The state also is considering a
no-build option, which is re-
quired as part of the federal
evaluation process. The possibili-
ties of a cross-bay ferry, rail or bus
service have been ruled out, state
officials said, because they
wouldn’t do enough to reduce
traffic.
The authority, which ownsand operates the Bay Bridge,
has been conducting the $5
million study since 2016 to
determine how potential bridge
alignments would affect the
environment, historic sites and
communities.
In addition to relieving back-
ups, state officials say, an addi-
tional crossing would make the
Bay Bridge safer and more reli-
able and would provide another
way to cross when a crash or
maintenance closes part of the
original spans.
State officials haven’t saidwhen a crossing would be built,
how much it would cost or how
the state would pay for it. Howev-
er, the study notes that an align-
ment next to the current bridge
would be the shortest, at 22
miles, which probably would
make it the least expensive of
those under consideration.
The authority has planned six
public open houses in September
and October to discuss the poten-
tial alignments. More informa-
tion is available at baycrossing-
study.com.
[email protected]Eastern Shore communities worry new bridge will bring tra∞c jams
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EXXISTINGSource: baycrossingstudy.com THE WASHINGTON POSTYUE WU/THE WASHINGTON POSTAMANDA VOISARD FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTABOVE: Bao Bao, right, grabs
at a painted poster while her
mother, Mei Xiang, eats
bamboo during a 2014
ceremony marking the giant
panda cub’s first birthday at the
Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Zoo officials think Mei Xiang
may be pregnant, and the Panda
House is currently closed in
anticipation. Mei Xiang and
another panda, Tian Tian, were
sent to the United States in
2000 under a 10-year
agreement that was
subsequently extended twice.
But now, it’s unclear whether it
will be extended again.
LEFT: Zoo-goers say final
goodbyes to Bao Bao at the
giant panda exhibit in 2017,
shortly before she left
Washington for her new home
in China.2015 PHOTO BY JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
A study found that without an additional crossing, eastbound traffic congestion at the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge on summer weekends in 2040 would span 12 hours, two hours more than in 2017.washingtonpost.com/postpointsMEMBER EXCLUSIVES DID YOU KNOW?
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