Linda Gibson

Caretaker competition could spark public panda-monium

By Linda Gibson (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-16 09:21

The people who run the Chengdu panda base in Sichuan province have had a great idea.

Officials plan to run a contest to search for six temporary caretakers. The winners will get to spend one month helping take care of the base's 84 pandas while blogging about their experiences.

The idea is that their blogs will reach millions of people around the world, raising awareness about the plight of the panda and its conservation needs.

Which is very worthwhile. The panda base officials aren't limiting their search to China by the way, they want to make it a global competition. I hope they are prepared for the response.

They could be deluged by applications from tens of thousands of people, maybe more.

Pandas are probably one of the most popular, beloved animals on the planet. They consistently rank as one of the biggest draws to any zoo and tend to attract more donations than other endangered species.

They also support lucrative tourism businesses in China such as "panda holiday tours" for visitors from around the world. Countless people watch them online everyday via panda-cams at zoos in Australia, China and the United States.

Pandas inspire such affection they acquire their own cult of "groupies," fans almost as devoted to them as those who follow rock bands or sports teams.

When Tai Shan and Mei Lan, two American-born VIPs (very important pandas) left for China in 2005, millions of their US fans watched their departure online or on television. The event was big news.

Those who had been invited to see them off at the airport in Washington, DC came dressed in panda colors, carried panda-shaped purses or even wore their own, homemade panda ears.

Mix the appeal of pandas with the allure of spending a month in China, and you have a recipe for an overwhelming response to the search for six people.

Panda base officials said they're looking for "bright, articulate and engaging individualswho care deeply about conservation issues." Millions of people fit that description, but panda base officials haven't described how they will choose from among them or how the contest will be run.

However it's accomplished, there is likely to be a huge amount of interest in the contest. Any suspicion that it wasn't run fairly, so that everyone got an equal chance at being chosen, would be a public-relations disaster.

Even the appearance of those who, say, offered to donate the most money, or those with powerful connections, would leave the panda base looking untrustworthy if it was viewed as an advantage in their application.

If that happens, donations would dry up and tourists would stop coming. The panda base would suffer. That wouldn't help the pandas.

So I hope officials there think carefully about how they set up the contest, make the process transparent and ensure a fair outcome. It would be unfortunate if this great idea turned into a nightmare.