Eats Shoots, Leaves and Much of Zoos' Budgets.

The article discusses the cost of keeping giant pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. The pandas require an expensive diet and are attended by four persons. In addition, the zoo must pay steep annual fees to the Chinese government to rent the pandas. Giant pandas are also on loan to zoos in San Diego, Memphis and Washington, D.C. The pandas are becoming a financial headache for many of the zoos. If China will not negotiate some budgetary expenses, says Dennis W. Kelly, chief executive of Zoo Atlanta, the pandas may have to be returned.