Pandas for Preservation

Pandas are popping up in the unlikeliest places, and so are polar bears, tigers, alligators, orangutans and dozens of other endangered species. They are seen on the fronts of men's ties, on the backs of women's slacks and peering from inside snuffboxes. The animal images are part of an expanding program by the U.S. branch of the World Wildlife Fund to raise money to study and set up preserves for species that are threatened with extinction. In return for a percentage of profits on products depicting these creatures, the fund has made deals with eight companies to use its name and its panda insignia on advertising and promotional material.

The Bert Pulitzer Co., for example, contributes about 15-c- on each $10 animal necktie, and Harper's magazine, which markets the $250 Bavarian crystal Kenya plate (with pictures of animals native to Kenya), contributes $25 from each sale. Russ Togs recently began to produce a "Save the Species" line of women's sportswear, which at contributions of 100 to 250 per garment should bring the fund at least half of the $100,000 that it expects to collect from the program this year. That will make up about one-sixth of the fund's 1975 program budget and will go far to help preserve the golden toad, the umbrella bird and the quetzal.

To further promote and enrich the fund, Revell Inc. has started to make a series of plastic model kits of endangered animals such as the white rhinoceros and the California condor; each kit contains a leaflet describing the plight of the animal and the fund's efforts to help. Says Christopher Dann, the fund's deputy director: "Besides paying us a royalty, Revell is allowing us to start a dialogue with 800,000 children and to build a constituency for the future."

Selling Stamps. This week another group, the National Wildlife Federation, is announcing a similar marketing program aimed at children. For the next four months, Southland Corp.'s 7-Eleven food stores will contribute to the federation 1-c- from the sale of each 250 Slurpee, a crushed-ice drink in a cup featuring drawings by Wildlife Artist Charles Ripper. The federation will use the money to buy an 835-acre area in South Dakota currently home for 15% of the surviving American bald eagles; the land will then become a preserve under the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior. To secure the purchase, Southland has already forwarded a $200,000 advance--quite a jump from the $1 and $2 donations that the federation gets from selling wildlife stamps.

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