China is set to rekindle its long-standing gesture of friendship with the United States by sending two gigantic pandas to the San Diego Zoo. It follows the return of almost all pandas on loan to US zoos in 2019 due to deteriorating relations between the two countries. Two bears—a male and a female—are anticipated to arrive as early as the end of the northern summer, if all permissions are granted, according to San Diego Zoo officials. As anticipation over two of China’s “national treasures” has grown, Australia may once more become the home of pandas when Adelaide Zoo’s Wang Wang and Fu Ni are returned at the end of this year.
WHICH PANDAS ARE HEADING TO SAN DIEGO?
According to Megan Owen of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and vice-president of Wildlife Conservation Science, China is considering a pair that includes a female descendent of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, two of the zoo’s past residents. Bai Yun gave birth to six cubs while residing at the zoo for over 20 years. The last two pandas in the zoo, she and her kid, were sent back to China in 2019.
Gao Gao was returned to his native China after spending the years 2003–2018 as a resident of the San Diego Zoo. Hua Mei, Bai Yun’s first child, became the first panda born via artificial insemination to live to adulthood outside of China. After being returned to China, she went on to give birth to 12 more cubs on her own.
PANDA DIPLOMACY
For two pandas, zoos normally have to pay a price of $1 million USD year. China’s conservation initiatives will be the beneficiary of the funds. Before bilateral ties normalized in 1972, Beijing gave two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington, DC., and the black-and-white bears have been a symbol of friendship between the US and China ever since.
Later, in an effort to increase the number and aid in cub breeding, China loaned pandas to zoos. When zoos in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, DC, returned their pandas to China last year, leaving just four in the United States—all at the zoo in Atlanta—fears regarding the future of so-called panda diplomacy intensified. A lot of loan contracts had a 10-year term, but they were frequently extended far beyond. However, talks to deploy more pandas or prolong the agreements with US zoos last year ended in deadlock. Observers of China conjectured that Beijing was progressively removing its pandas from Western countries because of the worsening diplomatic ties with the US and other nations.
Australia wishes its Adelaide pandas a happy journey.
For the past fifteen years, Adelaide Zoo’s temporary resident giant pandas, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, have been the center of attention. They first received a 10-year loan from China, but an agreement was reached to extend it for an additional five years. Elaine Bensted, the CEO of Zoos South Australia, stated, “They’re 17 and 18, they’re middle age, and China always likes to see pandas see out their life in China.”
By year’s end, they will be back in China.
“They have been quite the celebrities in South Australia and everybody knows their names and sing happy birthday to them both in August,” Ms Bensted told ABC.
The staff will all miss the recognizable bears, according to Ms. Bensted, who added that the panda bubble bath time was a big favorite. Over the years, the zoo tried both artificial insemination and natural mating as part of its breeding effort, but with little success.
“It’s a window of about 36 hours a year, but female giant pandas only have this season once a year,” Ms. Bensted explained, elucidating the tiny window of time pandas have to produce a child. While Adelaide Zoo reported that they have “opened discussions” with China Wildlife Conservation Association, China has not disclosed any more plans to lend pandas to Australia.
Pandas’ future
The giant panda species was on the verge of extinction until decades of research and conservation in captivity kept it alive. Today, there are over 1,800 of these animals in both the wild and in captivity. As a result of the US, Spain, and Austria being the first nations to collaborate with China on panda conservation, 28 pandas have been born there. “In exchange for owning the giant pandas, we provide cash for their conservation. It’s rare to see an animal that is classified as critically endangered get downgraded. They are currently classified as potentially extinct, according to Ms. Bensted. The new partnership will support the development of China’s national panda park and involve research on disease prevention and habitat preservation.
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