“He wasn’t asking for money,” Rubenstein said. “He thought that U.S. companies that might be interested in some China relationship would be interested, but he said he’d not had a lot of success.”
“When I heard about it,” Rubenstein said, “I thought . . . ‘We have been residents of Washington for a long time. We took our children to the zoo when they were younger. I’m a Smithsonian regent.’ And I thought it would be a nice holiday gift for the zoo and people in Washington.”
ARCHIVE VIDEO: Christie Harper of Derwood, Md., traveled with a group of women to China to visit Tai Shan, who left the National Zoo in February, 2010. The women were allowed to feed, touch and even clean up after him. (Sept. 2010)
Worldwide, there are believed to be only 1,600 pandas surviving in the wild, all in the wilderness of China, and a few hundred more in captivity.
Kelly, the zoo director, has said the zoo wants very much to produce more cubs and will try again soon.
If no pregnancy is achieved next year, the new agreement could allow the zoo to request one or more replacement pandas from China, officials have said.
Zoos in Atlanta and San Diego have had more success breeding pandas in recent years.
The National Zoo has produced one cub in 10 years, the beloved Tai Shan, who was born in 2005 and moved from the zoo to a breeding program in China last year.
The zoo’s pandas — both born at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan province — arrived in Washington on Dec. 6, 2000. At the time, there was hope that they would produce many cubs.
But giant panda reproduction is complex, and in recent years, zoo experts have tried in vain — using natural and artificial methods — to impregnate Mei Xiang.
Recent science suggests that if a female giant panda has not become pregnant for several years, it is unlikely that she will be able to do so.
Still, the zoo is about to try again. Female giant pandas usually go into heat for a brief period of a few days. Mei Xiang, who has gone into heat in early winter the past two years, may be doing so again.
Zoo officials said they have recently detected “power walking” in Tian Tian, an indication that he may sense his mate approaching estrus. When that happens, the two will be allowed to try to mate naturally, something they have not been able to do successfully. (Tai Shan was conceived through artificial insemination.)
If they are unsuccessful, Mei Xiang will be artificially inseminated again. If that doesn’t work, the zoo can explore the possibility of replacement giant pandas with the Chinese, officials have said.
Rubenstein, who grew up in a working-class family in Baltimore, has said he supports closer economic cooperation with China, and he has urged the United States to make it easier for China to invest here.
He has been a major benefactor of the Kennedy Center, reportedly donating, among other things, a new organ for the concert hall.
In 2007, Rubenstein paid $21.3 million for a 700-year-old version of the Magna Carta, a medieval English bill of rights, and placed it on permanent loan to the National Archives.
He has also given millions of dollars to Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Duke universities.
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