I noticed yesterday when I was checking the Atlanta Zoo’s Panda Cam that they have announced the end of the panda cam due to funding. You can read the press release here.
Giant panda devotees are encouraged to enjoy PandaCam peeks on weekdays from 10 to 5 through the end of the year. While PandaCam has been a favorite stop on zooatlanta.org for more than a decade, Zoo Atlanta has announced that this feature will soon come to an end. Due to limited resources, PandaCam will not be available after December 31, 2008.
I’m a bit bitter about this and I find it hard to believe that they don’t have the funding to continue. I am no where near a zoo with a panda and I don’t have the luxury (or the funding!) to jet off to D.C, Atlanta, or San Diego when I’m in the mood for panda viewing. Watching Tai Shan during his first months of life on the National Zoo’s Panda Cam helped get me through a very rough patch in my life. Something as simple as 10 minutes a day watching a little panda cub grow made such a difference in my life – and other’s I’ve been told. It seems silly that something that small and insignificant could mean so much to so many people, but it does, and it makes me extremely sad that the Atlanta Zoo is choosing to eliminate something that is such an important part of so many panda lover’s lives.
Not to mention I’m sure there are companies out there that would sponsor the panda cam…
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I agree with you 100% on everything you said. Surely there are many companies who would jump at the chance to have people worldwide see their logo and get some advertising while being a cam sponsor.
By Frances on 12.12.08 8:53 am | Permalink
Yes, I agree. Kellogg’s cereal has a panda on the box of their Endangered Animals brand and there is also Peanut Butter Panda Puffs from the EnviroKidz brand. Just two examples of companies with mass market products. I am sure the amount needed could not be very great. Atlanta should step up and try to save the Panda Cam.
By Andrew on 12.12.08 12:09 pm | Permalink
The folks at Zoo Atlanta are trying very hard to find a corporate sponsor, but with so many companies in trouble these days and laying off workers by the thousands, it’s not easy to find one that can spare $60,000 a year to fund a panda cam. I certainly hope they succeed, and if that fails, I hope the public can contribute the money. Please don’t feel that ZA has let panda lovers down. They simply don’t have the money to keep the cam operating without outside help. If it comes to a choice between spending money on animal care and spending it on the cam, I’m sure we all want them to put the animals first.
By Sandra on 12.12.08 1:35 pm | Permalink
If they are spending $1150 a week to operate the panda cam they must be employing someone full time to operate it. I was the office director of an environmental non-profit in California with 15,000 members and fairly heavy website traffic and our two webcams cost nothing like that. The downside for Atlanta of going to interns or a rotating crew of trained volunteers would be the time and trouble of supervising them, which would be a lot of work for someone who probably has too much to do already. The zoo managers also probably feel that they need to serve their main constituency in Atlanta first (after serving the welfare of the animals, of course) and that people there can easily see the pandas in person. On the other hand, I think that all zoos that have the privilege of housing critically endangered species have an obligation to be advocates on their behalf to as wide an audience as possible. When I think of how much goodwill and sales the Coca-Cola Company (based in Atlanta) has generated over the years from using polar bears as a promotional vehicle, it really seems shameful that they won’t help out. They were probably among the first to be asked.
By Andrew on 12.12.08 3:38 pm | Permalink
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