Speaker 1: There's a great deal of excitement in Washington these days,
Speaker 1: but perhaps the greatest excitement is the arrival of two
Speaker 1: pandas from China. I had a chance recently to sit
Speaker 1: down with Brandy Smith, who oversees the National Zoo and
Speaker 1: oversees the panda program as well, to talk to her
Speaker 1: about the pandas. Now we're in the Panda house because
Speaker 1: pandas have returned to the National Zoo. Why are pandas
Speaker 1: so popular? I think I read that about eighty percent
Speaker 1: of the people that come to the National Zoo come
Speaker 1: because they want to see the pandas. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: nice animals, but why are they that popular?
Speaker 2: I think there are a lot of reasons. I think,
Speaker 2: first of all, they're cute. They're adorable. People just want
Speaker 2: to see them. And the thing I love about pandas
Speaker 2: is the way that they're built. It actually, we are
Speaker 2: genetically designed to love pandas. They have these round features,
Speaker 2: the round ears, the round eyes, these cute voices, and
Speaker 2: what we ping when we see a baby is the
Speaker 2: same thing that pings when we see a panda, and
Speaker 2: so we're designed to think they're adorable. But they're also
Speaker 2: they're rare so I think it's a matter of having
Speaker 2: the opportunity to see them. You take the opportunity when
Speaker 2: you can. And you know, pandas are a story of joy.
Speaker 2: They're a story of hope and of happiness and success,
Speaker 2: a successful program that everyone is a part of.
Speaker 1: When did you get the new pandas?
Speaker 2: So these pandas came in October of twenty four, so
Speaker 2: just a few months ago.
Speaker 1: And how old are they.
Speaker 2: They're both three years old. The pandas are here not
Speaker 2: just because they're adorable, but they're actually part of a
Speaker 2: breeding program that's helping to save the species. And so
Speaker 2: we wanted to get the most genetically valuable animals, and
Speaker 2: we narrowed it down to a few pairs. But I
Speaker 2: will say we sent a veterinarian to China just to
Speaker 2: check the records of the different animals, and we did
Speaker 2: ask them to pick the cutest pair.
Speaker 1: As I recall when Richard Nixon went to China when
Speaker 1: the famous trip in the early nineteen seventies as a gift,
Speaker 1: Malzi Tung said, here are to pandas, and they came
Speaker 1: to the National Zoo, and at that time, I think
Speaker 1: they were the only pandas in the United States they were.
Speaker 2: At that time. That was really the start of the
Speaker 2: giant panda conservation program as we know it.
Speaker 1: They were gifts to the country. And subsequent to that, China,
Speaker 1: as I understand it, began a program of lending pandas
Speaker 1: or renting pandas to zoos around the world. And I
Speaker 1: thought I read that there were like twenty seven zoos
Speaker 1: or something like that around the world that have pandas.
Speaker 1: Is that how it works.
Speaker 2: We received the first pandas they were a state gift,
Speaker 2: and then there was the loan program that was to
Speaker 2: other zoos, and as part of that program, there's a
Speaker 2: conservation fee that zoos pay to China to the panda
Speaker 2: breeding centers in China, and the pandas that we have
Speaker 2: now are part of that breeding program.
Speaker 1: Was it easy to get the pandas to come back
Speaker 1: to Washington, d C. Did the Chinese say, we have
Speaker 1: some extra pandas, we don't know what to do with them,
Speaker 1: we're going to give them to you.
Speaker 2: Well, it was a little more difficult than that. It
Speaker 2: probably took us. It was about over the course of
Speaker 2: a year where we had conversations with our colleagues in
Speaker 2: China and we were able to get pandas here very quickly.
Speaker 2: I think it's a testament to the relationship we've built
Speaker 2: over decades, to the conservation success that we've had here
Speaker 2: with our pandas and our panda program. And so it
Speaker 2: was a lot of conversations, but I think we always
Speaker 2: knew in the end that we did want pandas at
Speaker 2: the National Zoo.
Speaker 1: How big is the National Zoo? How many acres do
Speaker 1: you have here?
Speaker 2: So we have two facilities. We have the zoo, which
Speaker 2: is in Washington, d c. It's one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five acres in Rock Creek Park. And then we also
Speaker 2: have a facility called our Conservation Biology Institute, and that's
Speaker 2: thirty two hundred acres and it's in front Royal, Virginia.
Speaker 1: Now, when I was a little boy growing up in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: we had a zoo there and that still exists. But
Speaker 1: the animals always seem to be in big cages. They
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be able to roam around that much. Now,
Speaker 1: my understanding is that people that are in charge of
Speaker 1: zoos let animals have more freedom and more space than
Speaker 1: they used to. But what about the argument that some
Speaker 1: people say it's not nice to have zoos at all,
Speaker 1: because let the animals stay in the wild. Wat should
Speaker 1: we have people like me gawking at them all the time.
Speaker 1: How do you respond to that?
Speaker 2: I love that question because it's asked by people who
Speaker 2: care deeply about animals. And so I'll answer in two parts,
Speaker 2: And one is the emotional part about about animals and zoos.
Speaker 2: And I always, you know, I think about people who
Speaker 2: have pets. Right, people get pets. The most of them
Speaker 2: aren't trained to care for them. They don't know that much.
Speaker 2: They bring them to their house, they have them in
Speaker 2: their apartment, you know, go for walks every so often.
Speaker 2: But they know those animals are cared for. They know
Speaker 2: that those animals are happy. They know that they love them,
Speaker 2: and they're loved back. Now imagine that, except imagine that
Speaker 2: you have experts, hundreds of experts who are trained in
Speaker 2: the care of animals. Right, people spend their entire lives
Speaker 2: caring for these animals with the best nutrition, the best
Speaker 2: veterinary medicine, you know, habitats, they're scientifically designed to meet
Speaker 2: their behavioral biological needs. And that's animals and zoos. We
Speaker 2: know they're happy, We love them. And we know their
Speaker 2: loved pack.
Speaker 1: So what is other than pandas. Who are the biggest
Speaker 1: attraction or what are the biggest attraction at the National Zoo?
Speaker 2: You know people, we call them the charismatic megafauna. People
Speaker 2: love the big animals, the pandas, elephants, lions, tigers, cheetahs.
Speaker 2: But one fact that I think is really funny, the
Speaker 2: most searched animal on our website are snakes, and so
Speaker 2: I don't know if people are searching them because they
Speaker 2: want to see them or if they're searching them because
Speaker 2: they're afraid to see them.
Speaker 1: Let's go back and talk about the pandas because they're
Speaker 1: so popular and obviously you get a lot of visitors
Speaker 1: because of that. So where do pandas come from? Why
Speaker 1: is it only in one place, as I understand it,
Speaker 1: where pandas are. You've got two hundred countries in the world,
Speaker 1: Why only one country has pandas.
Speaker 2: So that's just the area they are indigenous to, kind
Speaker 2: of the cool mountain forests in China, So that's the
Speaker 2: habitat that sustains them the best. And pandas Actually they're
Speaker 2: obligate bamboo eaters. If they don't eat bamboo they'll get sick.
Speaker 2: So they're very heavily dependent upon having the appropriate habitat.
Speaker 1: Now, originally pandas, which were maybe a couple million years old,
Speaker 1: we think they used to have a meat diet, as
Speaker 1: I understand they were carnivores, but then maybe five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand years ago they became herbivores. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's easy to deal with your stomach. But because
Speaker 1: they only eat vegetables or non meat, do they have
Speaker 1: enough nutrition to get through the day.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't realize this pandas are. They're
Speaker 2: taxonomically their carnivores, and they are bears. They are true bears,
Speaker 2: and they have evolved to take advantage of a more
Speaker 2: plentiful resource. They don't have to chase down their food.
Speaker 2: It pretty much just grows up around them as they
Speaker 2: fit there. So they've evolved special adaptations to be able
Speaker 2: to consume bamboo as quickly as possible. But what it
Speaker 2: lacks in quality, they make up for in quantity. So
Speaker 2: the pandas here at the National Zoo, we feed each
Speaker 2: panda one hundred pounds of freshly cut bamboo every single day.
Speaker 1: And if you eat one hundred pounds of food, which
Speaker 1: is bamboo every day, one hundred pounds a day. Doesn't
Speaker 1: that take a lot of energy? And does that mean
Speaker 1: that they sleep a lot? Because they use up a
Speaker 1: lot of energy.
Speaker 2: Eating they do, they're digesting, so they spend their times.
Speaker 2: I feel like a panda's life is eating, sleeping, and playing.
Speaker 2: So I also think we love pandas because they're living
Speaker 2: like our best lives. And so it's so fun to
Speaker 2: watch them because sometimes you'll see a panda just, you know,
Speaker 2: bowing through bamboo leaves and they'll actually stop for a second,
Speaker 2: and you think it almost looks like they're taking a
Speaker 2: little mini naps. They digest their bamboo before they just
Speaker 2: keep eating more.
Speaker 1: Now when they pick up the bamboo, and you grow
Speaker 1: your own bamboo, right, you don't bring it in from China.
Speaker 1: You grow it somewhere in the National Zoo Area.
Speaker 2: We actually grow. So we have the facility in Virginia
Speaker 2: thirty two hundred acres. We do a lot of our
Speaker 2: research there. All of our labs are there for all
Speaker 2: of the conservation and science work that we do, but
Speaker 2: we also grow. We grow all of our own hey,
Speaker 2: our own alfalfa, and our bamboo as well.
Speaker 1: Now panda bear has like we have fingers, Panda bear
Speaker 1: seems to have like a six finger help them pick
Speaker 1: up the bamboo. Is that an evolutionary trick or something
Speaker 1: to help them pick up bamboo.
Speaker 2: It's not really a thumb. It's a modified wristbone that
Speaker 2: actually almost it's a flexible wristbone that functions almost like
Speaker 2: a thumb as they hold Think about as they hold
Speaker 2: on to bamboo, because bamboo's circular, so if you watch them,
Speaker 2: it looks like they're holding on and it's part of
Speaker 2: that evolution from being instead of investing in being a
Speaker 2: better predator right and being able to chase down their meat,
Speaker 2: they invested evolutionarily and being the best bamboo eater you
Speaker 2: can imagine.
Speaker 1: Now, there's a problem that pandas have in that there's
Speaker 1: so few of them. It was for a long time
Speaker 1: that panders were thought to be an endangered species. Now
Speaker 1: they're called vulnerable. But how many pandas are there in
Speaker 1: the entire world.
Speaker 2: So this is incredible because this is all due to
Speaker 2: this panda program, and this is so important. So when
Speaker 2: we started with giant pandas fifty years ago, there were
Speaker 2: fewer than a thousand pandas in the world. Right, we're
Speaker 2: talking in the wild and ze fewer than a thousand
Speaker 2: and decades later, there are close to two thousand pandas
Speaker 2: in the wild. Now, actually you think a little over
Speaker 2: eighteen hundred. There are over seven hundred pandas in breeding centers.
Speaker 2: So as part of this program, we have tripled the
Speaker 2: number of pandas on the planet.
Speaker 1: It's still a small number of pandas, it's.
Speaker 2: A small number. But what we're also doing, and this
Speaker 2: is what I love about the Panda program. People come here,
Speaker 2: they see the pandas, they're cute, it's great. But when
Speaker 2: they contribute, when they buy a stuffed panda or a
Speaker 2: T shirt or something, they are actually funding our conservation efforts.
Speaker 2: So not only are we breeding pandas, not only are
Speaker 2: we learning more about giant pandas, but we're saving their
Speaker 2: habitat in the wild. So when this started, there were
Speaker 2: probably just ten about ten small little reserves where pandas
Speaker 2: could live. There are panda reserves in China three times
Speaker 2: the size of Yellowstone. So because of this program, there
Speaker 2: are more pandas on the planet, more quality panda habitat
Speaker 2: in the wild, and pandas have gone from being endangered
Speaker 2: to being vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Now. One of the problems that pandas have and the
Speaker 1: reason they're so few, is that their ability to reproduce
Speaker 1: is the most limited, it seems, are the most challenging
Speaker 1: in the entire animal world. So I think the female
Speaker 1: panda can reproduce only a short period of time, maybe
Speaker 1: one day a year or something like that. So the
Speaker 1: male has to show up at the right time, right,
Speaker 1: and how does that work?
Speaker 2: Well, it's actually really interesting. So the males. The female
Speaker 2: has a very narrow window where she's reproductively viable, but
Speaker 2: the males go through something called rut, so it's much longer.
Speaker 2: So basically for months that could overlap multiple females estrus.
Speaker 2: The males are basically they're looking for a mate, so
Speaker 2: they are they're scent marking, they're patrolling, they're covering a
Speaker 2: large territory. And what they're really doing is they're both
Speaker 2: looking for a mate and they're advertising to females that
Speaker 2: they would be a great father to their cubs.
Speaker 1: So many VIPs I soon call you up and say
Speaker 1: I'd like to come bring my grandchildren, my children. I
Speaker 1: want to come myself to see pantas. You get a
Speaker 1: lot of that.
Speaker 2: So there are a lot of people who want to
Speaker 2: see giant pandas. And the thing I love the most
Speaker 2: is we are part of the Smithsonian and so everyone,
Speaker 2: no matter how VIP you are, you can come here.
Speaker 2: You can see giant pandas for free.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you how one becomes the head of
Speaker 1: the National Zoo. Let's talk about your background.
Speaker 2: So where did you grow up in Indiana, Pennsylvania. It's
Speaker 2: in western Pennsylvania, small town we had. I had a
Speaker 2: rural delivery address and most of my relatives are coal miners.
Speaker 1: So when you were growing up and you're a little girl,
Speaker 1: did you play with dolls or do you play with pandas?
Speaker 2: I didn't have pandas, so stuffed animals, and you know,
Speaker 2: our neighbors had cows, so I'd always go over and
Speaker 2: you know, you know, feed the cows, and you know,
Speaker 2: see my friends who worked at who lived on farms.
Speaker 1: So you told your parents you want to be a
Speaker 1: National Zoo director? How did you let your parents know
Speaker 1: that you wanted to be are you? Are you trained
Speaker 1: as a zoologist?
Speaker 2: So I actually I was a young girl interested in science,
Speaker 2: you know, in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 2: I thought that if you wanted to be a scientist,
Speaker 2: that meant you were a doctor. And I thought that
Speaker 2: was my only career path. And I actually got it.
Speaker 2: My undergraduate degree is in biology, and you know, I
Speaker 2: thought about it and I thought, this isn't what I
Speaker 2: want to do. I want to work with animals. So
Speaker 2: I was about to start an internship with an ophthalmologist
Speaker 2: and I called the Pittsburgh Zoo and I just said,
Speaker 2: I want to do what you do. Tell me, how
Speaker 2: did you get this job? And because this was, you know,
Speaker 2: back in the day, the guy said, he said, actually,
Speaker 2: I'm on my way to interview for a summer intern
Speaker 2: and I'll interview you right now, and if you do well,
Speaker 2: I'll hire you. And so I got the job and
Speaker 2: I went home and I told my mother that instead
Speaker 2: of doing an internship with a doctor, I was going
Speaker 2: to intern as a zoo keeper. And well, we were
Speaker 2: driving at the time, so one is, she almost drove
Speaker 2: the car off the road, but the other it was
Speaker 2: the first time I ever heard my mother swear, and
Speaker 2: she said, she's like, at least do something respectable with
Speaker 2: your life. Be a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you get this internship and you obviously must
Speaker 1: have liked it. So then what happened?
Speaker 2: I always tell people I never made a smart career
Speaker 2: choice in my life, so I always just kind of
Speaker 2: followed my heart, and I did the internship at the zoo.
Speaker 2: The thing I love about zoos is not just that
Speaker 2: they educate and inspire people, but they are unique conservation organizations.
Speaker 2: There are species that exist on the planet today because
Speaker 2: of zoos, because we care for animals and can breathe them.
Speaker 2: Blackfooted ferret, Panamaanian golden frog, simitar horned rigx, California conders.
Speaker 2: The list goes on. And so I was really fascinated
Speaker 2: with the idea of genetically managing how we manage these
Speaker 2: species genetically so that they're saved for the wild. I
Speaker 2: got a master's degree in zoology that focused on genetic management.
Speaker 2: Then I got a job in another zoo, I did
Speaker 2: more internships, I got my PhD, and eventually I ended
Speaker 2: up here.
Speaker 1: All right, so you've got your PhD in zoology.
Speaker 2: It's a program at University of Maryland. It's called behavior, Ecology,
Speaker 2: Evolution and Systematics.
Speaker 1: So and then you get a job immediately there after
Speaker 1: at the National Zoo.
Speaker 2: Well, actually I had a job. I was the head
Speaker 2: of conservation and science for an organization called the Association
Speaker 2: of Zoos and Aquariums. So we set kind of conservation
Speaker 2: goals for zoos, accredited zoos across the country. It's an office,
Speaker 2: it's an association, and I just really missed. I missed
Speaker 2: being in a zoo. I missed the animals. We create
Speaker 2: magic for people on a daily basis, and I missed
Speaker 2: being part of that.
Speaker 1: So how many zoos are there in the United States?
Speaker 2: So there are about twenty five hundred licensed animal exhibitors
Speaker 2: in the United States, But then there's also an accrediting
Speaker 2: program by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and I
Speaker 2: think under two hundred and fifty zoos are accredited, So
Speaker 2: less than ten percent of zoos in the country are accredited,
Speaker 2: and those are the best of the best.
Speaker 1: So the most famous in the United States were the biggest.
Speaker 1: I would think leaving the National Zoo a side is
Speaker 1: the San Diego Zoo Is that the biggest? Actually?
Speaker 2: So, I do think it's the most well known zoo.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are very familiar with that zoo.
Speaker 1: Over the years the National Zoo is not the only
Speaker 1: zoo in the United States that's had pandas, right, and
Speaker 1: so I thought there were at one point four San Diego, Memphis, Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and Washington. They still have.
Speaker 2: Them now as part of the loan program started at
Speaker 2: roughly the same time, so a lot of the pandas
Speaker 2: were kind of moving through in cohorts, and so a
Speaker 2: lot of zoos in the past two or three years
Speaker 2: their pandas were older and returned to China. And so
Speaker 2: right now only the National Zoo and the San Diego
Speaker 2: Zoo have giant pandas.
Speaker 1: So go back and finish up on your career. So
Speaker 1: you're working at this association and you now say, I
Speaker 1: really want to be with animals directly. So then did
Speaker 1: you apply to the National Zoo.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was an opening for a general curator. It
Speaker 2: was more of a curator of mammals, and it was
Speaker 2: also the curator of giant pandas. And so my story
Speaker 2: actually came full circle because when I got the job
Speaker 2: here and I was in charge of the giant pandas,
Speaker 2: my mother was so proud.
Speaker 1: Did she come to visit the pandas? Ever?
Speaker 2: Oh right away?
Speaker 1: So all right, So then you were the head of
Speaker 1: the mammal program, including that the pandas. When did you
Speaker 1: become the head of the National Zoo itself the whole head?
Speaker 2: At first I was essentially curator of mammals and curator
Speaker 2: of giant pandas, and then after a few years I
Speaker 2: became the head of Animal Care, so I saw all
Speaker 2: of the animals, the veterinarians, nutrition, wrecords, behavior, all of
Speaker 2: the departments. And then eventually I became deputy director, and
Speaker 2: then a few years later I became director.
Speaker 1: So if you walk around and did she the pandas,
Speaker 1: did they recognize you?
Speaker 2: It is one of the saddest movements of my life.
Speaker 2: When I was curator of giant pandas and I was
Speaker 2: here all of the time, the pandas knew who I was.
Speaker 2: They recognized me or at least my voice, and I
Speaker 2: could call their name and they would show an interest.
Speaker 2: But as director, I don't. I'm not with them every day.
Speaker 2: I'm not the ringer food and love and happiness.
Speaker 1: So today, how many different species do you have at
Speaker 1: the National Zoo?
Speaker 2: We have about three thousand animals from about three hundred
Speaker 2: different species.
Speaker 1: And how many professionals do you have working here.
Speaker 2: At both locations. We've got about four hundred people.
Speaker 1: And how many people come a year to the National Zoo.
Speaker 2: So just under two million people come every year. And
Speaker 2: we actually we only had one year without Giant Pandas,
Speaker 2: and what we noticed was that our attendants actually dropped
Speaker 2: twenty percent when Giant pandas weren't here.
Speaker 1: What did you do when COVID came? Nobody showed up?
Speaker 2: Then, right, we didn't have any visitors, but we had
Speaker 2: to keep working. So if we're responsible for the living collection,
Speaker 2: I'll actually never forget that moment because the world is
Speaker 2: closing down because of COVID. And our team gathered in
Speaker 2: our line in Tiger Building and the offices there have
Speaker 2: this kind of bunker like feel, and we were there
Speaker 2: and we said, okay, what do we do? And everyone's concern.
Speaker 2: The concern wasn't I can't go home. The concern was
Speaker 2: what happens if I get sick and I can't take
Speaker 2: care of my animals? And so we had animal care.
Speaker 2: We had a team and b team that didn't cross,
Speaker 2: so we could always have someone who could be there
Speaker 2: to take care of the animals.
Speaker 1: Now does a China say if you have two pandas
Speaker 1: that they've rented to you, and there's a baby panda
Speaker 1: that they owned the baby panda, or do you own
Speaker 1: the baby panda?
Speaker 2: So they own all pandas. But this is a good
Speaker 2: thing because the majority of pandas live in China. And
Speaker 2: so again we're not producing pandas just because we went
Speaker 2: to although it's wonderful. These pandas are all part of
Speaker 2: a conservation program. So if a cub was here and
Speaker 2: it grew up here, it can't breed with its parents,
Speaker 2: and so the cub returns to China so that it
Speaker 2: can be part of the breeding program.
Speaker 1: When a baby is let's say, has some fur and
Speaker 1: can see and hear, a human can pick that baby up, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's say in a zoo or a control setting,
Speaker 1: you're allowed to pick up a panda a small a size.
Speaker 1: But is that right?
Speaker 2: We do wellness checks on the cubs soon after they're born,
Speaker 2: so we do actually get hands on our giant pandas
Speaker 2: just to make sure they're doing fine and they're healthy
Speaker 2: and everything's okay.
Speaker 1: After a panda is what size? Is it not possible
Speaker 1: for a zoo keeper to actually be in the cage
Speaker 1: alone with them because they're bears and it could be dangerous.
Speaker 2: So it's actually usually when they're about a year old,
Speaker 2: they hit about one hundred pounds, and that's the time
Speaker 2: when they start to get they're not predators. They're not
Speaker 2: going to see you as food, right, they don't see
Speaker 2: you as a threat. But even if they just do right,
Speaker 2: they've got strong jaws. They've got sharp claws, so an
Speaker 2: animal could inadvertently hurt you even without trying.
Speaker 1: It probably went into a panda, you know place right now,
Speaker 1: like here where the pandas are, and there they is
Speaker 1: now weigh three hundred pounds. Would that be dangerous And it.
Speaker 2: Would be and not because again they're not predators, so
Speaker 2: they wouldn't see you as food. It wouldn't look like
Speaker 2: a tasty treat if you walked in, but they would think.
Speaker 2: They could think that you're a toy. They could think
Speaker 2: that we're something that we gave to them just to
Speaker 2: play with their jaws. Their bite force actually equals that
Speaker 2: of a lion or tiger. So if they wanted to
Speaker 2: play with you, they've got the claws, they got the teeth,
Speaker 2: they got the strength. They could do some damage.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the pandacam for a moment. You
Speaker 1: have a camera that watches pandas twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 2: I think people really enjoy watching the pandacam because they're
Speaker 2: seeing them how we watch them. We decided we're going
Speaker 2: to do something a little bit different this year because
Speaker 2: it's not just people in the United States, but people
Speaker 2: around the world are watching the pandacam. We want to
Speaker 2: do it during the daytime, you know, during the twelve
Speaker 2: hours during the day when people are when you know,
Speaker 2: the pandas are awake, when keepers are interacting with them.
Speaker 2: So what we're going to do is we'll have twelve
Speaker 2: hours with the giant pandas and then replay at twelve
Speaker 2: hours for the people on the other side of the
Speaker 2: world who want to see giant pandas.
Speaker 1: Have you thought about selling advertising on your pandacam.
Speaker 2: We are Smithsonians Nationals Zoo, and so we receive about
Speaker 2: sixty percent of our funding from the federal government, and
Speaker 2: as such, we want to make sure that we are
Speaker 2: open and available to every single person who wants to
Speaker 2: see tiant pandas and not necessarily be assailed by by ads.
Speaker 1: So sixty percent of your funding comes from the federal government.
Speaker 1: The other forty percent just falls out of the sky.
Speaker 1: Where does that come from?
Speaker 2: Well, we're really fortunate, you know, we were talking about
Speaker 2: the pandacam and so Boeing sponsors our pandacams their corporations
Speaker 2: to help splonster us. We have some incredibly generous donors
Speaker 2: who support us through philanthropy, and we also generate revenue.
Speaker 2: And so when people come here, they come to the zoo,
Speaker 2: and they come here for free because we're Smithsonian. But
Speaker 2: when they buy a stuffed panda or a T shirt,
Speaker 2: or they eat, you know, a hamburger or a hot dog here,
Speaker 2: that money goes to support the zoo in all of
Speaker 2: our conservation work.
Speaker 1: So if somebody wants to know something about the National Zoo,
Speaker 1: and you've got two or three sentences, you can give them.
Speaker 1: What is a summary of at the National Zoo, Why
Speaker 1: is it so great? And why should somebody visit the
Speaker 1: National Zoo.
Speaker 2: National Zoo is part of Smithsonian. We are free, we
Speaker 2: are open and welcome to everyone. And when you come here,
Speaker 2: you are not just seeing the animals, You are not
Speaker 2: just having an incredible time that will stay with you
Speaker 2: and your family, through the rest of your lives. You
Speaker 2: are part of our conservation success.
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