In Shanghai, Chuan Chuan the giant panda, like other urban zoo pandas, has a voracious appetite for certain kinds of young bamboo. Although he has substituted bread, milk, apples and eggs to some extent, he still devours over 65 pounds of bamboo stalks and leaves a day. His two-year old son Le Le now eats more than he does.

The problem is that the zoo is having difficulty finding and affording sufficient bamboo. Farmers are turning over their bamboo plantations to other crops because bamboo straw has been replaced by plastic for items such as baskets. The main supplier to the Shanghai zoo is unable to meet the zoo's demand. The additional supplier is far from cheap. This is compounded by the reduction of subsidies from the government as the economy has moved from a command system to a market system. Zoos are forced to raise money in other ways, such as through loaning pandas to foreign zoos for hefty prices. Businesses and individuals are being encouraged to adopt an animal in return for having their names honored on plaques next to the cages.

In the interim, Shanghai residents have been donating bamboo from their backyards, transporting it on bicycles. Others have offered land so that the zoo can grow its own bamboo.

(Updated November 1, 2000)