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What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

author:It's a character
What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

"Pandas have lived on Earth for a long, long time, and they have always been safe, but it is only because of humans that they are in trouble. But it is precisely because of human beings that their future is guaranteed."

Wen | Ling Yi

Editor|Goldstone

Figure | (unless otherwise noted) Visual China

Xiangxiang and Yaya

February 19, 2023 is the day when the giant panda Xiangxiang will last appear in front of the Japanese public - due to the upcoming departure for China, a large number of Japanese people want to come to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo's Taito Ward to say goodbye to Kaka, according to the regulations of the Ueno Zoo, from January 21, 2023, the visit of "Xiangxiang" will be based on a pre-draw system, visitors can submit lottery applications through the website after January 6, and up to 2,600 people will be selected every day. On February 19, the probability of winning the lottery is less than 2%.

Two days later, in front of the Ueno Zoo, tourists once again flocked here. They wanted to see Xiangxiang leave. In the morning, a white truck loaded with incense slowly left Ueno Zoo. Some people gathered on Xiangxiang's route to the airport from 7 a.m., shouting "Xiangxiang don't forget me." The Japanese reporter also said during the on-site report: "Xiangxiang has only left us for 10 minutes, but we have the feeling of a father marrying his daughter." At the scene, some people cried and told reporters: "Not with the mood of farewell, but in the belief that one day I will see you again."

Xiangxiang was born in June 2017 and is the daughter of Zhenzhen and Lili, a giant panda in Japan. Five years before Xiangxiang was born, Zhenzhen and Lili also gave birth to a panda, but unfortunately, the panda cub only survived for 6 days. Therefore, Xiangxiang's preciousness lies in the fact that she was the first giant panda to be bred and successfully bred at Ueno Zoo.

In order to name this precious panda, Ueno Zoo launched a call for people. Within half a month, the zoo received a record 320,000 alternative names. In the end, "Xiangxiang" came out on top.

In Japan, Xiangxiang is a veritable top, and its every move affects the nerves of the Japanese people - "Xiangxiang defecated for the first time on her own" and "Xiangxiang fell from a tree for the first time" can become the content of media reports. Even, when she was two years old, Ueno Zoo exhibited her feces from childhood to adulthood, allowing people to understand its growth through the change of shape and size, and people in front of the exhibition hall exclaimed "so cute".

In order to ensure its health, Ueno Zoo has a smoking ban in the entire park. Keepers play 24 hours a day, and foods such as bamboo, cat cakes, and cherry blossom sorbet are readily available. Later, in order to satisfy the people's love for Xiangxiang, Ueno Zoo once wanted to extend the original 2-hour viewing time to 5 hours, but the people strictly refused because people did not want Xiangxiang to work overtime. A local woman named Yasumi Sato brought her daughter to see Kaka and said, "(Kaka) must feel unnatural, as long as it is happy and stress-free, I will be satisfied."

One detail is that from many photos and videos taken by the media and netizens, Xiangxiang is very clean, her white hair, few stains, and few food scraps scattered in the gaps of the hair - this shows that Xiangxiang was very careful, even delicately cared for, during her life in Japan.

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

"Xiangxiang" appeared for the last time before leaving Japan, and the Japanese people said goodbye to it.

And what is completely different from Xiangxiang is a giant panda named Yaya.

Yaya lives in the Memphis Zoo in the United States and is 23 years old. While the news of the Japanese people taking good care of and bidding farewell to Xiangxiang happened, photos and videos of Yaya living in the United States continued to circulate on the Internet. In the video, the 23-year-old Yaya has a sunken face, shoulder blades, black hair on his body, and he slumps on the ground, his expression is extremely painful. Subsequently, the official website of Memphis Zoo and the China Zoo Association issued a joint statement explaining Yaya's current physical condition - Yaya's recent physical examination report showed that the blood test results were basically normal, the imaging tests were not abnormal, no organic lesions occurred, and it was at a moderate health level. As for skin diseases, they may be related to family inheritance.

Faced with Yaya's condition, local people in the United States petitioned online, hoping that Yaya could return to China for treatment as soon as possible, with more than 10,000 signatures, and pop singer Billie Ellish also retweeted tweets to protect Yaya.

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

Photos on social media in the United States show that "Yaya" is emaciated and has extensive skin diseases.

At the Memphis Zoo, Yaya originally had a companion, a giant panda named Lele, but not long ago, Lele died suddenly at the age of 25. According to the video from the panda house, Lele had very little activity and food that day, so the zoo believed that she died naturally in her sleep. After Lele's death, the park also held a memorial event for Lele, inviting visitors to send flowers and write a memorial speech.

With Lele's past experience, Yaya's living conditions quickly set off people's concern and heated discussions, and many media opened cloud live broadcasts to broadcast Yaya's activities for people 24 hours a day. Many Americans spontaneously went to the Memphis Zoo to visit Yaya. Yingshan, a Chinese living in Mississippi, drove 4 hours to the Memphis Zoo. There, she found that the bamboo fed by the keeper was very thin, and Yaya would not eat it after taking a bite. In addition to cleaning and feeding, the staff did not have any interaction with Yaya. Yingshan and a few friends also bought a three-day screen projection in New York's Times Square for Yaya, showing Yaya's photos, hoping to use this to speak for Yaya.

In the face of attention from the Chinese and American people, not long ago, the Memphis Zoo in the United States told the media that it had submitted all applications to transport Yaya back to China and arranged direct flights for Yaya.

Pandanomics

Zoos in overseas countries leased pandas from China for breeding after the 1984 Olympics. Li Anyou, a professor of political science at Columbia University, once said that the panda's cute appearance is endearing and is the friendliest image of contemporary diplomacy.

According to media statistics, there are currently about 67 giant pandas living overseas, living in 20 countries such as the United States, Japan, France, and Spain. Among them, Japan has the largest number of giant pandas rented, including Xiangxiang, which has rented 9 giant pandas.

The magazine The Economist once called the operation of the panda leasing system Pandanomics, Panda Economy. According to the latest statistics and reports from the New York Times in 2022, in general, the lease period of giant pandas is usually ten years, with each rent of 500,000 to 1 million US dollars. During this period, female pandas also need to pay a "baby tax" of at least $200,000 after giving birth to their cubs. In addition, when the cubs are two to four years old, they must be sent back to China. If a panda dies unexpectedly during the stay, the renter needs to pay a fine of $500,000 to the Chinese side.

For countries that rent giant pandas, renting a giant panda may not be the most difficult, how to feed a giant panda is a difficult lesson.

Panda grows all year round in dense bamboo forests, and bamboo was once the easiest food to obtain. But in fact, bamboo's nutrient content is not high, and only 20% of nutrients can be absorbed. Throughout the day, pandas are fed for at least 16-17 hours.

Therefore, for every zoo that rents giant pandas, finding the right food and bamboo for the pandas is the first problem that needs to be solved.

In 2011, the giant panda Sweet and Sunny left China for Edinburgh Zoo in the UK. Ian Valentine, director of the Edinburgh Zoo Animal Protection Centre, spent five years coordinating and communicating with the Chinese side to introduce the two giant pandas. Before the panda set off, the park bought life insurance for the two pandas, each for about £1 million.

In order to take them to the UK, the zoo's chief keeper, Allison McLean, came to China for a month-long intensive training. Including how to feed, how to understand the character of the panda, how to select qualified bamboo.

Sunshine and sweetness eat more than 70 kilograms of bamboo a day, and the total amount of bamboo eaten in a month can fill a London double-decker bus, which is a challenge for Edinburgh Zoo. To do this, Simon, the zoo's head gardener, brought fresh winter bamboo from a large Dutch bamboo plantation company for a cost of up to £70,000 a year.

In Japan, Ueno Zoo has prepared rice, corn flour, soybean flour, milk, fruit, and large-leaf bamboo for two giant pandas in Japan, Kangkang and Lanlan. But they don't eat either. When there was nothing else to do, the zoo found bamboo from all over Japan that were similar to Sichuan. After trying it out, I found that Kang Kang liked to eat bamboo from Otahara in Tochigi Prefecture the most, while Lan Lan liked to eat "Fuji" apples the most.

The pandas Lun Lun and Yangyang living in the United States have been described by the media as "two picky eaters", and there are 200 kinds of food that can be fed in the United States, but the two pandas only eat 20 types, and after eating each food for a few weeks, they never eat more bites and recognize only one type of bamboo. To this end, Zoo Atlanta has also mobilized 1,000 households in Georgia to plant bamboo to supply the zoo.

With the recent panda fever, in addition to Xiangxiang and Yaya, the giant panda Fubao born in South Korea has also received a lot of attention on social networks. After Fubao was born, its keeper Jiang Yanshun found that Fubao only ate the kind of bamboo he liked, and the bamboo he didn't want to eat was thrown aside and didn't touch it. Jiang Yanshun was very curious, holding the curiosity of what are the differences between these two types of bamboo, tried all kinds of bamboo in the park, and found that the bamboo that Fubao loves to eat has more moisture and less slag, and since then, Jiang Yanshun only gave Fubao its favorite bamboo.

In the past three years, the raging new coronavirus has brought some crises to zoos everywhere. Affected by the epidemic, zoos around the world have closed down and even fallen into debt. Raising pandas has become an unspeakable burden. Because it could no longer pay for the giant panda Da Mao and Er Shun's bamboo, the Calgary Zoo in Canada had to return the giant pandas in 2020, two years ahead of schedule.

In response, local media wrote in a news headline: "If you can't bring fresh bamboo to the giant panda, let it go back to the place where there is bamboo."

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

The first giant panda born in Korea, "Fubao", eats bamboo on his first birthday.

"Everyone is a living friend"

In addition to feeding, how to create a comfortable and scientific living environment for these traveling pandas is also particularly important.

Zoo designer Zhang Enquan once mentioned in his book "Zoo Design" that in the world, many advanced zoos take "immersive display" as the main form of display, not one-sided "tourists enter the exhibition area", but so that tourists have a "visiting experience in the animal's home", and have enough respect and emotion for the animal.

For giant pandas, the territory they live in must first be large, with enough space for living and activities. In Belgium, the venue where pandas live reaches 5,300 square meters, which is the "Suzhou Garden" built by Belgium with huge investment. The Netherlands has been applying to China for 16 years to lease giant pandas. After the lease conditions were qualified, it even spent 51 million yuan to build a Chinese-style panda palace of more than 9,000 square meters, and even the construction workers were selected from China.

In the interview, Director Ian of Edinburgh Zoo mentioned "animal abundance" many times. In 1925, American primatologist Robert Yerkes first proposed the concept of "abundance", that is, by changing the captive environment and other methods, the living environment of animals is closer to the wild state, so that animals can show more natural behaviors and restore their original nature.

In order to follow the survival habits of giant pandas in the wild, Edinburgh Zoo keeper Allison learned from the keepers of the Sichuan Panda Base that when feeding, do not simply feed, but patiently insert bamboo into the soil in the garden to simulate the growth conditions of bamboo in the wild.

When building the cage, the Edinburgh garden also deliberately built the panda climbing shelf very high, so that the panda could see the mate on the other side of the wall. "Both parties don't see each other all the time, only occasionally," and gardeners are meant to simulate such relationships.

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

At Edinburgh Zoo, giant pandas are adapting to their new home full of "wild fun".

In this kind of care and interaction, the giant pandas outside the country have also established a deep friendship with local breeders and local people.

In the early years, Tanabe, the keepers of giant pandas Lanlan and Kang Kang in Japan, accompanied them almost 24 hours a day. He recalled seven and a half years with the pandas and described it as "under house arrest." During this period, Lan Lan fell ill and could not be cured, and Tanabe even thought that maybe giving it Chinese medicine would work, and then, Tanabe found a Chinese medicine shop and bought several medicinal herbs for Lan Lan in the name of "buying Chinese medicine for his grandson". The pharmacy man asked him how old the child was, and he said he was two. Asked how much he weighed, he said 55 kilograms, which startled the people in the pharmacy, and he quickly changed his words: "The age is wrong, it should be older."

There was a popular video on Weibo, taken from the Panda House of Ahteri Zoo in Finland. In the 2019 Mid-Autumn Festival, Rolling in Finland received a special Mid-Autumn Festival gift - the local Finnish choir stood in front of the panda exhibition hall and began to chant "May People Be Long", facing this group of singing people, Rolling sat on the branch opposite them, silently, and then simply fell on his bamboo platform. In the comments of that video, some netizens were hit by such a practice to tears: "This may be the clumsy and light love that the Finnish people give to giant pandas."

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

Faced with the singing of the Finnish choir, "Rolling" fell on the bamboo platform. Source: Weibo @Panda Observation Jun

In South Korea's Samsung Everland, breeder Jiang Yanshun created a lively and interesting paradise for Panda Fubao. Because of his love for Fubao, netizens called him Grandpa Jiang. Grandpa Jiang made bamboo into various toys, such as lollipops, water cups, glasses, small guitars, and sushi, just to attract Fu Bao's attention. In two years, more than 60 toys were made. Knowing that Fubao liked maple leaves, in the fall, Grandpa Jiang saved a large pile of maple leaves, rinsed them and let Fubao sit on the ground and play and roll happily.

Next year, Fubao will also return to China. According to the regulations, it will leave Grandpa Jiang's care early and begin to learn to be independent. On the day he last met Fubao, Grandpa Jiang brought Fubao a lot of bamboo snacks. An old man and a young man sat on the ground in the panda hall, and Fu Bao put his right arm on Grandpa Jiang's shoulder, and held a bamboo stick in his left hand and kept putting it in his mouth. Then Grandpa Jiang gave her another carrot and said, "Fubao, this is the last day I can sit with you like this, and in the future, you will live alone like your parents." Quickly lower your arms. I won't sit with you like this from tomorrow, don't be sad, don't get hurt, live bravely."

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

The last interaction between Fu Bao and Grandpa Jiang before "independence" made by netizens is @Lanxi Ci Ting

This equality and goodwill transcends species and borders. "They take good care of the pandas, and they treat the pandas like their own pet dogs. Keepers are around the pandas every day, feeding them, training them, petting them, and staying with them all the time. Everything the breeder does is friendly." Director Ian of Edinburgh Zoo once described the warm, timeless bond between pandas and keepers.

And the giant panda also brought a lot of fun and power to the local people.

When the BBC selected the 2011 Women of the Year, the December "Outstanding Woman" was awarded to Tiantian, a panda living at Edinburgh Zoo, and the BBC said that the selection would add a bit of ease and pleasure to the selection results. And together with Tian Tian, there are 11 other famous women, including Pauline Pierce, who faced the bandits in the political riots that year, singer Adele, etc.

Another Austrian-based panda Yangyang has "painted" more than 100 paintings sold locally for 490 euros each. People in Austria were very enthusiastic, saying that her paintings were reminiscent of the work of children when they first painted.

In Japan, the public regards giant pandas as supreme treasures. Human beings cherish them and protect them, while at the same time, these scarce lives always give people unconditional comfort and sustenance.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck Japan and triggered a huge tsunami. At the time of the earthquake, the panda Lili and Majin in Tokyo's Ueno Zoo also made harsh cries, and there was a heartbreaking photo of the panda holding the keeper's calf in fear and burying his hair trembling. For safety, Ueno Zoo is temporarily closed and will not reopen until April 1st. After the zoo reopened, more than 20,000 people visited the pandas on the first day, 1,688 of whom came from shelters throughout Tokyo to see the pandas. When the victims saw that Lili and Zhenzhen were still eating bamboo slowly, their hearts were hot and they smiled, and then some media pointed out that "it is the panda that lights up people's gray and painful lives."

After Xiangxiang left Japan, under the message board of "Daily Panda", some fans wrote: "Since the birth of Xiangxiang, I think the panda is the greatest masterpiece created by God. Xiangxiang gave me the opportunity to protect small animals... Recently, I started taking care of two stray cats, and finally understood the lyrics because of Xiangxiang's presence - "Everyone is a living friend"."

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

The blessing notes people leave to Xiangxiang are the source of the network

Protection and freedom

At the other end of the "panda economy" is the economic returns that giant pandas bring to zoos around the world.

According to statistics, every zoo with giant pandas will be more widely favored by the local people. In the two years since the panda's arrival, the number of visitors to Edinburgh Zoo has increased by 4 million, and total revenue has jumped by more than £5 million to almost 15 million. Kaka born in Japan not only brings more visitors to Ueno Zoo, but also benefits the surrounding area. According to Japanese experts, Xiangxiang alone has brought at least about 2.7 billion yuan in economic benefits.

At that time, when Xiangxiang was born, in order to appease the people who did not win the on-site view, Ueno Zoo specially opened a live broadcast to show the people of Japan Xiangxiang's humility, and the stock price of the live broadcast platform J-Stream directly rose on the day of its launch.

In the process of raising giant pandas, if panda cubs are born, it is a greater benefit for the zoo.

The staff of Edinburgh Zoo has said that zoos with giant panda cubs will soon become world-class zoos. Therefore, allowing captive pandas to breed as naturally as possible is also an important task for various zoos.

Usually, pandas are rented to foreign countries, often one female and one male, in order to reproduce. At the beginning of this century, a giant panda couple rented from China at the Kobe Prince Zoo in Japan was quickly sent back to China when they found that the male panda Xingxing was unable to give birth, and a second male giant panda of the same name took its place.

At the Edinburgh Zoo in the UK, in order to give birth to sweet and sunny cubs, the staff even deliberately arranged for the two to meet 5 times a day. In addition, the zoo also closely observes various behaviors that they believe may affect the panda's mood and sexual desire, such as Tian Tian's suspected pregnancy, and the zoo has set up a no-fly zone in some areas to prevent the sound of aircraft flying from affecting it.

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

At Edinburgh Zoo, UK, giant pandas "Sunshine" and "Sweet" received Valentine's Day cakes.

In fact, independent breeding of giant pandas is not a simple and crude matter. A director of the Sichuan Panda Research Center once said in an interview with Sanlian Life Weekly that less than 5% of male pandas in captivity can mate naturally. In addition, female pandas in captivity are usually unable to enter estrus normally. The broader perception is that within a year, the fertile period of giant pandas is only 2-3 days.

To this end, pandas need to give birth through artificial insemination, which is a painful process - the veterinarians who perform the operation need to insert electrodes into the rectum of male pandas, use electrical stimulation to secrete semen from the body, and then transplant the semen into the female panda. Under a video showing the artificial insemination process of pandas, some netizens couldn't help but feel alarmed: "Most people only like their cuteness on the surface, but few people think that they also need to suffer such pain and suffering with life, and they lose the freedom of fertility and the dignity of life."

Hu Jinwei, a mainland panda expert, has also questioned the artificial insemination technology of giant pandas: "It has been obvious for a long time that in captivity, the reproductive ability of giant pandas is not as good as one generation."

But there seems to be no intention of stopping the practice. Mei Xiang, a giant panda in the United States, was sent to the United States in 2000, and during the 17 years she lived there, she was constantly carrying out breeding programs at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. In addition to natural mating, Mei Xiang has undergone artificial insemination 18 times, given birth to 4 cubs, and gave birth to a total of 6 cubs. But unfortunately, only three survived: Tarzan, Baby and Babe. After the birth of her last child, Beibei, Mei Xiang even had frequent stereotypical behaviors due to problems such as narrow living space and malnutrition: pushing cubs away and licking the ground.

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

A screenshot of the video of Mei Xiang, a giant panda in the United States, after giving birth

In 2010, Kohing, a male giant panda kept at Oji Zoo in Kobe, Japan, died suddenly at noon on September 9. Later, after investigation, it was found that after discovering that Dandan began to show signs of heat, the zoo prepared to perform sperm collection surgery on Xingxing for artificial insemination. But after the anesthesia failed, Xingxing died on the operating table.

Since 2007, Memphis Zoo has also performed 4 artificial insemination sessions on Yaya in 5 years, but all of them have miscarried. In 2012, Yaya had just miscarried and underwent artificial insemination in the same year. At that time, local animal protection organizations in the United States reported that several abortions and artificial insemination had caused great damage to Yaya's body and mind, and were irreversible.

Dr. Susan Clayton, a doctor of zoology, felt lost after years of panda research. Recently, she told reporters at a rally denouncing the protection of the Memphis Zoo: "I love pandas as much as everyone else. But at some point, I can't help but wonder what our purpose is in saving them. Is it like a tourist attraction?" "We need to let the pandas take care of themselves, and they can only do that if we leave enough forest for them to live a secret sexy life," she said.

According to the latest news, on March 15, two experts from the Beijing Zoo have arrived in the United States and traveled to the Memphis Zoo to prepare to help take care of Yaya's living and treat her skin diseases. After the news that Yaya was about to return to China, some reporters also visited her residence after returning to China, the Beijing Zoo Panda Museum. The staff said that Yaya will move into Mama Lele's original home, and the original glass house is being converted into an open-air yard. Her own room, leisure facilities, feeding programme, feed supply, etc. are all prepared.

Xiangxiang, who has just returned to China, has already moved into the Ya'an Bifeng Gorge in Sichuan, and after a 30-day quarantine period, Xiangxiang will meet with Chinese people.

And a discussion sparked by Xiangxiang and Yaya continues—how we as humans should treat another creature as equals, and how to give them freedom when we protect them.

It is also an eternal dilemma and paradox between humans and all endangered wildlife. As Ian Ian, director of Edinburgh Zoo, said: "Pandas have lived on Earth for a long, long time, and have always been safe, and it is only because of humans that they are in trouble." But it is precisely because of human beings that their future is guaranteed."

Zoologist George Schaller once came to Sichuan, China, and lived with pandas for more than five years. As for why humans like to watch giant pandas, George Schaller once explained: "The round flat face, big dark circles, and round and cute body shape give the panda a naïve and childish character, win everyone's love, make people want to hug it, protect it, and it is rare." What's more, survivors often touch the heartstrings more than victims. These qualities have created a species that combines legend and reality, a mythical beast in daily life."

After leaving China, George Schaller wrote his experience and investigation of panda observation in China into a collection of reports, "The Last Panda". He believes that as human beings, it is our luck that we can live in the same world as pandas, and the evolution process has intertwined.

In those years, the most memorable thing for George was an adult giant panda named Zhenzhen. At that time, George met Zhenzhen not far from the panda camp, and she was curled up on a large mossy rock, her head hanging low and her mouth buried in her overlapping forearms. George kept approaching it, waiting for its response – Jane would occasionally change positions, sleep on her side or stomach, sometimes get up to scratch or chase away flies from her face. "She raised her head, looked at me nonchalantly, turned her back to me, reclined and slept as usual. She ignored my existence with amazing confidence and freedom."

The freedom and mystery of the panda made George unforgettable for the rest of his life. In The Last Panda, he wrote: "For the panda, freedom means living peacefully in a sea of bamboo surrounded by mountains and forests. They can't adapt themselves to cater to us, and their needs can't be compromised."

And this may also be the advice left by Giant Panda and George to all humans, because "everything deserves our appreciation and respect".

What have giant pandas experienced abroad over the years?

Inside the Ya'an Bifeng Gap Base of the China Giant Panda Conservation Research Center, people watch giant pandas frolic in the forest.

【Reference】

1. The Last Panda, George Schaller, Shanghai Translation Press, 2015-04

2. Documentary "Giant Pandas in Britain", BBC

3. "How did the Chinese giant panda become the "top" in Japan? Weng Rongrong, Southern Weekend, 2023-03-01

4.Temblor brings hope and tears to zoo,The Japan Times, 2011-09-16

5.Saving the popular giant panda from being loved to death. The New York Times

6.The obsession with panda sex. The New York Time

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