In February 2021, the Calgary Zoo in Canada announced that because a panda eats about 7 million yuan of bamboo every year, but due to the impact of the epidemic on international air transport, it is impossible to guarantee that the giant panda will receive fresh bamboo leaves in time, so it decided to return the giant panda to China in advance.
As soon as the news came out, some Chinese people sighed for it; Some Chinese people welcome pandas back to China.
As the ambassador of China's goodwill image, panda has always been a popular "fragrant food" by foreign countries.
In the 1970s, Nixon visited China, and on his second day in China, Pat Nixon, fascinated by the panda's charm, came to the Beijing Zoo to visit the giant panda.
Toward the end of the visit, Premier Zhou Enlai announced at a thank-you dinner that two giant pandas from Baoxing County, Sichuan Province, China, Nameling lingling and Xingxing, would be presented to the United States as national gifts. The move pleased the Nixons.
In 1979, "Lingling" and "Xingxing" spent more than $6 million a year in the United States, and were jokingly called "gold-devouring beasts" by Americans.
So, how much money does "raising pandas" burn? What about "panda diplomacy"? Is "Panda Return" really because "can't afford to raise"?
(Giant Panda)
I. The "National Treasure" That Cannot Be Raised
The panda, also known as the iron-eating beast, enjoys its place on the world stage as a species unique to the mainland.
It has a rounded body and black and white hair. Fresh bamboo leaves and bamboo branches are the main food sources of this cute creature, but as an omnivore, it also preys on small animals such as bamboo rats.
And most of the time the action is relatively slow, always inadvertently showing a lazy look.
Unlike other carnivores, pandas in most cases exhibit slightly sluggish but still cute and non-aggressive animal images, which are often more likely to be compassionate.
At the same time, the color of the panda's coat is mainly black and white, while the black color block is distributed in the eyes, ears, thighs and other body parts, such a color matching has formed a strong contrast with the color of the bamboo forest where it lives, this strong visual stimulation not only does not make people uncomfortable, but also brings people a unique aesthetic enjoyment, and becomes a special memory point of the panda.
The nurturing process of such a precious species is naturally quite complicated.
Take the giant panda base of the Berlin Zoo in Germany as an example, which covers an area of 150 acres, but it is only to raise two giant pandas of "Jiaoqing" and "Dream Dream", and the cost of buying land at the beginning cost nearly 20 million euros, which is extraordinary!
(Berlin Zoo, Germany)
In terms of site selection, the living place of the Berlin giant panda is 10 kilometers away from the city center, which prevents the destruction of the park by urban pollution, and the giant panda can survive in a good ecological environment, and tourists can also relax in the more natural park.
In terms of layout, the Berlin Zoo adopts a hybrid planning design that combines architectural and natural forms.
The base follows the "hybrid" overall layout method, which fully integrates architecture and nature to create an immersive environmental experience, which has the best effect and is more suitable for the habitat life of giant pandas.
As the head of the zoo, Karim Bella Rabi also prepares swans and other companion animals for the pandas.
In addition, the panda outdoor activity field is rich in vegetation and does not deliberately carry out too much artificial construction, according to the staff, "the base wants to create a kind of immersive viewing of the giant panda effect, the need for tourists to carefully go to the jungle to explore and find the giant panda, so that the natural wild ecological environment is not only conducive to pandas, but also allows tourists to more intuitively experience the living environment of giant pandas."
The recently built Berlin Giant Panda House is more luxurious – its roof is covered with earthen roofs, planted with dwarf shrubs and turf, so that the building has a better thermal insulation capacity, and the greening of the roof and ground also integrates the building with the surrounding environment.
The façade material is made of concrete brushed wool to make a fine dress, which can also reflect part of the solar radiation, and the shape is integrated with the overall environment of the park.
In addition to the hardware facilities, a clean cage is also the key to raising giant pandas.
At the Berlin Zoo, the cage is cleaned more than 3 times a day, once a morning, at noon, or in the afternoon, and once in the afternoon. The size is to clean at any time to ensure that the cage is neat and clean.
Depending on the season and climate, Karim Bella Rabi hires a professional relocation team to disinfect the inner and outer venues once a week or half a month, costing up to 10,000 euros each time.
In addition, the food for raising giant pandas is mainly bamboo leaves, which is also a huge expense.
Among the various bamboo leaves, according to the degree of feeding of giant pandas, they are water bamboo, southern bamboo, phoenix tail bamboo, cong bamboo, moso bamboo and so on.
The amount of bamboo that prefers to eat has increased significantly, and the normal food intake of young giant pandas is generally 20 kg.
In order to make the pandas feel like "home", Karim Bellabi also purchased 50 tons of fresh bamboo shoots from Chengdu for 2 million euros, which is an amazing cost.
And the two giant pandas that were sent back to China by Canada are eating poor Canada alive.
At the same time, in order to ensure that the pandas can drink fresh and clean drinking water, the Berlin Zoo changes the drinking water three times a day.
There is a change of work in the morning, work in the afternoon and work in the afternoon. The water selected is directly sourced from the Alps and is close to €150 per liter. Each giant panda drinks about 5 liters of water per day.
In addition to diet, heat prevention and cooling are also a compulsory course in panda farming.
Wild giant pandas vary according to the season and climate, and use the migratory lifestyle to choose the most suitable living environment. Caged pandas are restricted.
Every year in late spring and early summer, Karim Belabi prepares the pandas in advance for the summer heat protection and cooling, and adds a plastic shade net to the top of the cage. If the ambient temperature exceeds 30 °C, 100 kg of ice cubes are placed in the inner room of the panda pavilion to cool down the panda heat. And turn on the air conditioner to ensure that the room temperature does not exceed 26 ° C.
After the giant panda "Dream Dream" enters the old age, its ability to adapt to the ambient temperature is significantly reduced, especially the response to high temperature discomfort is obvious. Gasping for breath, shortness of breath, restless movements.
Every year, in order to ensure that "Dream Dream" spends the summer in Berlin City, it is the key to the daily management of the giant panda "Dream Dream" in summer.
According to the physiological characteristics of "Dream Dream", Karim Bella Rabbi used the method of cooling down mechanical ice to solve the problem of "Dream Dream" crossing the summer. There is even a swimming pool built specifically.
Karim Belabi never counted how much the Berlin Zoo cost, but when he heard that it cost at least €3 million a year, he was still wide-eyed – a hefty expense.
In fact, such a fee does not include "rent", and the so-called "rent" stems from the mainland's "expensive" "panda diplomacy".
Second, the history of "panda diplomacy": the origin of "rent"
In order to protect the nascent socialist regime, in 1957, the giant pandas "Pingping" and "Moraine" were sent to the Soviet Union as state gifts. Because pandas are extremely precious, the diplomacy level of this animal exchange activity is extremely high.
("Moraine")
In 1959, the Chinese side gave a male giant panda "An An" to replace the Soviet Union with the "Moraine Moraine", on the grounds that the Soviet side could not determine the gender of the two pandas and asked the Chinese side to exchange a female giant panda to Moscow.
After entering the 1980s, the living environment of pandas gradually deteriorated, and in 1985, the large-scale death of bamboo forests in the wild, and the lack of food prompted a sharp decline in the number of giant pandas in the wild.
It was difficult to achieve sustainable development in the form of gifts with high manpower and high resource input, which meant that panda diplomacy in the form of gifts came to a temporary end.
But this does not mean that panda diplomacy will also end here, and the changes in the ecological environment have prompted panda diplomacy to make corresponding changes and adjustments in form.
In 1984, in order to coincide with the Los Angeles Olympic Games, China temporarily lent the two giant pandas "Yongyong" and "Welcome" of the Beijing Zoo to the Los Angeles Zoo. Three months later, the two pandas were sent to the San Francisco Zoo for another three months — but in exchange for a lucrative rent.
This event undoubtedly kicked off the prelude to the giant panda commercial exhibition, and China also took advantage of the opportunity to propose a rental tour plan for giant pandas.
According to this plan, Panda leased abroad, so that it can have a short stay of 100-200 days abroad, and China can also get the corresponding rent.
The main objects of leasing are those countries that have been given giant pandas and have rich experience in giant panda breeding.
When the lend-lease format was first proposed, it was generally welcomed by all parties and was seen as a one-shot format.
From 1984 to 1987, zoos in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Toronto, and Busch Gardens in Florida rented pandas, and after 1988, zoos in Calgary, Atlanta, Columbus, Portland, and Seattle were still haggling for pairs of pandas on display.
The Toledo Zoo, just sixty miles away, and the Michigan State Fair in Detroit have gone to great lengths to become the first pandas on display in the Midwest.
Pandas have been rented in Japan, and zoos in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland have also rented pandas.
In terms of pure practical benefits, the panda leasing activity under commercial operation has undoubtedly achieved great success.
During this period, Compared with the so-called gift activities, China obtained huge practical benefits, and the income from a rental amounted to six figures of US dollars, and sometimes the proceeds from the sale of souvenirs could also be dividends.
For Chinese in the 1980s, going abroad was still a new thing, but the panda loan activity also gave some people the opportunity to go abroad and visit the world.
In this form, China seems to have found a perfect balance between commercial interests and expanding its international image.
From the perspective of the lessee country, although the cost of acquiring giant pandas has risen compared to the 1930s, the indelible love of pandas by the public still makes the local animal museum profitable.
(Giant Panda in Japan)
For a time, panda diplomacy in the form of leasing and lending actually formed a situation of mutual benefit and win-win results for all parties.
However, due to questions about whether the leasing activities will help protect the survival of giant pandas, leasing, a highly commercial way of panda communication, has been forced to change. In its place was panda diplomacy, which was the primary theme of scientific research cooperation.
Even if scientific research and animal protection became important themes for the movement of giant pandas during this period, As the only country that retains giant panda resources, China can still reap great benefits from them.
According to the Associated Press, around the world, in addition to China, there are currently about 50 giant pandas living in zoos and research institutions overseas.
According to the relevant agreements on the lease of giant panda scientific research cooperation, the lease period of giant pandas is generally renewable after the expiration of ten years, while the annual rent of a pair of giant pandas is US$1 million.
At the same time, if a giant panda gives birth to a cub while living abroad, the cub will also be owned by China, and in addition to the rent of the adult panda every year, an additional $600,000 will be required to provide China with related expenses. And juvenile pandas grow to 2-3 years old and need to be sent back to China to avoid inbreeding.
In addition, giant pandas living overseas need to pay a fine of $500,000 to China in the event of accidental death and return the remains of the pandas.
At this stage, from the perspective of international cooperation, it is not difficult to find that with the support and regulation of the forestry sector, China has achieved quite rich results in international cooperation and scientific research on animals involving the protection of giant pandas.
Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center actively cooperates with first-class zoos and research centers in Japan, the United States, Spain and other foreign countries to breed 15 giant panda cubs, setting an excellent result of the largest number of international giant panda cooperative breeding and littering.
And this move helps the participating countries to obtain a large profit, and "can't afford to raise" is almost impossible to appear strange phenomenon.
So, is there another reason for "not being able to afford it"?
Third, the confusing truth
As mentioned above, raising pandas is very expensive, and at the same time, whether it can be raised depends on the relationship between the two countries - when frictions and differences begin to occur in the country's bilateral relations, "recalling giant pandas" is not a joke, and panda diplomacy will stagnate.
Therefore, the success or failure of panda diplomacy is also floating and sinking in this uncertainty.
(Giant Panda in France)
In the new millennium, the confrontation between countries has weakened, but there is still an undercurrent, similar to the phenomenon of complete suspension of panda diplomacy between China, the Soviet Union and China and North Korea in the 1960s and 1970s, but the so-called "panda return" behavior also occurs occasionally due to friction between countries.
The most famous of these is the "Panda Returns" incident in Malaysia.
On December 18, 2018, a Malaysian minister Sevier revealed that Malaysia will send the pandas living in Malaysia to China in advance, "Xingxing" and "Liangliang", on the grounds that they "can't afford to raise them" and cause domestic public dissatisfaction due to spending a lot of money to raise pandas.
The reasons for the Malaysian government's high-profile "panda return" incident are confusing, but combined with the visit of the local people when the giant panda landed in Kuala Lumpur, and the giant panda "Fengyi" gave birth to the third child in the Malaysian zoo in 2021, the so-called "can't afford to raise" is nothing more than the excuse of some officials in the Malaysian government. I am afraid that we may not know the relevant reasons until the declassification of the relevant documents is published.
After entering the era of the epidemic, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the current situation of unfair distribution of resources on a global scale has been more clearly exposed.
In February 2021, the Calgary Zoo in Canada announced that due to the impact of the epidemic on international air transport operations, it could not guarantee that the giant pandas would receive fresh bamboo leaves in time, so it decided to return the giant pandas to China in advance;
In December of the same year, according to the Wall Street Journal, Taiwan wanted to launch free pangolin diplomacy with the Czech Republic to counter the costly mainland panda diplomacy.
In February 2022, U.S. House of Representatives Member Metz publicly stated that he would draft a proposal to deal with the provisions of the Panda Lend-Lease Treaty on the return of panda cubs, refusing to return panda cubs born in the United States to China.
Although these various news do not rule out the expediency of some zoos in the epidemic period, it reflects more deeply that in the current era of the epidemic, conservatism prevails, and "pandas" also need more wisdom and skill.
Epilogue:
Similar to the "platypus diplomacy" that Australia once conducted, China, as the only source of pandas, has formed a strong correspondence between the two, that is, it is impossible to bypass China when it is mentioned.
With the help of the cute animal image of the panda, it is helpful to make positive associations with China's national image in international public opinion, compared with the image of animals such as dragons and Siberian tigers, pandas are more likely to make people have a stable, gentle and unbiased influence, which is very helpful for shaping China's public opinion image.
In addition, the pandas that survive in the wild have a long history of survival and breeding, so as an extremely rare animal "living fossil", it is used as an important bridge for diplomatic activities, in which the importance attached to the receiving country is self-evident, and it is also an important proof of high-level diplomatic activities.
Whether it was the first factual panda diplomacy between New China and the Soviet Union in 1957, or the first panda diplomacy of New China in the news report first mentioned in the People's Daily report. It is enough to see that in the practical application of new China's panda diplomacy, the specifications and requirements involving the selection of objects are so high, and the precious pandas either carry the important strategic judgment of China to repair relations with the Soviet Union or open up a new situation in Sino-US relations in the new stage of the Cold War.
Etiquette is not light, but friendship is also heavy.
If you return because you "can't afford it", it is a pity!
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