Money Money Money Money Money

Panda Expenses Aren't So Black And White

"SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Zoo is one of four zoos in the United States with panda contracts -- the others are in Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Memphis. Collectively, they are trying to negotiate with China to bring down the fees because they are not breaking even."

This article comes as a bummer to me, because zoos love pandas, but pandas are expensive and zoos are (generally) poor. People love pandas, but people are (generally) poor. Thus zoos rely on contributions (at least the National Zoo does because it’s a part of the Smithsonian thus it's FREE!) and on volunteers.

Poor people (like this CP) might/could donate a lot of time to the zoo instead of or in addition to money. But alas, volunteer programs also cost money! Training to care for a particular species, management of the program itself, and costs of limiting liability all cost money. Money that (some might argue) could go directly toward the care of said pandas. However, volunteering is not as easy as one might imagine--there are significant hoops to jump through if you want to become a volunteer. For example, The National Zoo has pretty strict requirements as to training attendance and the duration of your volunteer stint. At their volunteer page, under the position of "Photo Collection Assistant", it reads "Time commitment: Two or three days a week for four to six hours. Weekdays only between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m." Those parameters don't allow for much of the population at large to volunteer! Furthermore, several of their volunteer programs require an up-front commitment, sometimes upwards of a year, in addition to training, from their volunteers. These are significant hurdles to overcome when attempting to recruit for good, unpaid help!

What is needed is a retooling of the Zoo's volunteer program, which ironically also costs more money. As I see it, the issue comes down to the transaction costs of implementing a new zoo volunteer program that allows the greatest number of volunteers to participate, with a mininum of "hassle" on both parts (the zoo's and the volunteers') while simulatenously keeping the costs down. The Zoo could invest just a little more into retooling their volunteer program and use the program itself as both a volunteer recruitment tool and possibly even a fund raising tool for the panda conservation fund. By severely limiting the number and types of people who are able to volunteer, they are under-utilizing a near free and endless resource!

I can understand these restrictions and the reasons as to why they are in place. Obviously no business wants to go through the trouble of hiring and training an employee who ends up quitting after one week. And obviously, the zoo needs folks M-F 9-5 as well as in the evenings and the weekends. (FYI--Pandas do not only eat & poop during business hours.)

But surely, if zoos need funds in order to keep pandas, and there exists a pool of willing and able volunteers to help, ought not the zoos be able to find a way to make this relationship work? I don't have any formal panda education or panda training, but I'll bet I can move bamboo and shovel panda poop with the best! I would scoop panda poop if it would help keep or bring more Tai Shans into the neighborhood. (Isn't it obvious this CP has time enough to spare?) But I literally can't afford to volunteer for the National Zoo!

To be perfectly clear, I am not complaining IN THE LEAST that the zoo's volunteer program is too strict or inconvenient for the likes of me. At no point should the administration of a program, or people politics ever take precedence (or take away) from the duty of caring for the zoo animals to the fullest extent possible. My point is just that I believe there is a huge population of would-be volunteers out there, especially in hectic cities like DC, if not for the "upfront" hurdles of signing up. A program that is easier for volunteers to access, more work-schedule friendly, and allows flexibility to volunteer among different species could create a vastly different zoo volunteer enviornment, foster the feeling of community between a city and its zoo, and possibly even foster good PR opportunities for the zoo.

And really, I just want to pet a panda...