The Memphis Zoo has extended its contract with China 10 more years to keep giant pandas. The agreement, signed by the Memphis Zoo, Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, and China’s State Forestry Administration, extends the loan for two bears at half the cost of the previous loan.
According to Abbey Dane, the communications director at the zoo, the contract isn’t negotiated on specifically keeping Ya Ya and Le Le — the two bears in the China exhibit currently — only the ability to keep pandas in the exhibit. The zoo has tried to breed the two over the past decade, but have yet to be successful.
The zoo has borrowed the pandas since 2003.
