Edinburgh Zoo’s giant pandas may be sent back to China next year to save money when their ten-year contract with Beijing ends.
It costs about £1 million a year to lease a mating pair and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park, faced financial pressure when it was forced to close for three months last summer.
David Field, chief executive of the society, said that it would have to “seriously consider every potential saving” including their giant panda contract.
The zoo acquired Tian Tian and her mate, Yang Guang, in 2011 in a deal that coincided with talks that led to a £2.6 billion trade deal. The pandas’ names mean Sweetie and Sunshine.
“The closure of
