Animals: Pandamonium

Arrival by air of Manhattan’s first baby giant panda last week was occasion for a greeting such as transatlantic fliers once got. But three days earlier, Chicago’s Daily News published an article which suggested that giant pandas are not so rare and valuable as the U. S. considers them. Archibald T. Steel, crack China War correspondent, reported taking a day off from the battle front to explore panda territory. Excerpts: “Pandas are not rare. . . . Giant panda prices, f.o.b. Chengtu, range between 25 and 180 American dollars per head, although the latter is regarded locally as fabulously high.*. . . Panda pelts are a drug on the market. Yesterday I was offered four, at 8 American dollars apiece. . . . Since the bottom may drop out of the giant panda boom, the natives have been tipped off to be on the lookout for live specimens of the golden-haired monkey, another animal peculiar to this region which heretofore has never been kept successfully in captivity.”

* Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo bought the late Su Lin for $7,500, Mei Mei for $8,750.