With 28-year-old HSING-HSING suffering from a probably fatal kidney ailment and LING-LING dead, the Smithsonian's National Zoo is in discussions with China about acquiring another pair of giant pandas. Both the San Diego Zoo, which has a pair of pandas on loan, and Zoo Atlanta, which has been promised a pair, have pledged the going giant-panda price tag: $1 million a year.
But the National Zoo, where admission is free, doesn't have deep pockets. Its fund raisers have pledged $2.5 million over the next 10 years, plus help in conducting a panda census in China and developing a satellite monitoring...
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