Giant pandas are both "cash cows" and "gold-devouring beasts".
As a rare animal unique to China, the giant panda has been pushed as a national treasure and has become China's chief animal diplomat, and with the prosperity of China's comprehensive national strength and influence, the popularity of giant pandas has also risen. Giant pandas that were once wantonly stolen by foreigners, now even the "eight caravans" are difficult to invite abroad, leasing giant pandas need to have extremely strict conditions, to consider the human, material and financial influence of the leasing country, etc., if not satisfied, then stop thinking.
Why do foreign countries have to spend sky-high rents on giant pandas? Many people may think: giant pandas look cute, foreigners like it! This is just a superficial appearance, and the truth is far from simple. They value not only the ornamental value and scientific research value of the giant panda, but also the value of zz on it, and the high economic value attached behind the value of zz.
The Overhahn Zoo in Reina, the Netherlands, spent 7 million euros to build a luxurious Chinese-style palace for the giant pandas in the Netherlands
The giant panda is a symbol of China, and the purpose of leasing the giant panda is to bring china closer, show sincerity, and then naturally cooperate with China in many aspects to grab more benefits. China can also use giant pandas to carry out "panda diplomacy" in exchange for a series of benefits such as foreign technology and markets. Leasing giant pandas is extremely beneficial to both China and Leasing countries, and it is a win-win situation, so foreign countries will queue up to apply for loan of giant pandas, and China is also willing to rent giant pandas.
A special plane prepared by the United Kingdom for the giant pandas in the UK
In the final analysis, the popularity of giant pandas in the world is so high, mainly because of China's national strength as a support. When China was poor and weak, giant pandas were wantonly hunted and killed by foreigners, and now that China is strong, giant pandas have become the "top stars" of the animal kingdom.
The previous rambling of these is to tell everyone that foreigners are not fanatical "panda fans", they are all shrewd businessmen, and of course they will not do loss-making business. In addition, many people are jealous of the "extraordinary treatment" of giant pandas, in fact, it is not necessary, giant pandas are just a tool, and the big living people go to compare with tools, and the pattern is too small.
Giant panda is both a "cash cow" and a "gold-devouring beast", if a giant panda "shakes" more money than "swallows" money, then the leasing country will find ways to renew the contract, if a giant panda "shakes" less money than "swallowed" money, it will be refunded, for example, in 2018 Malaysia returned the giant panda in advance, because of the loss.
A few months ago, there was news on the Internet that a country had returned the giant panda in advance, that is, Canada. The news said that due to the impact of the epidemic, international air transport has stagnated, and the pandas in Canada cannot eat fresh bamboo, so Canada said on May 12, local time, that the Calgary Zoo in Canada decided to return the giant pandas "Big Hair" and "Ershun" in advance. After more than 6 months, the two brigade pandas returned to China today.
In response to the incident of "Canada returning the giant panda in advance", netizens said that it is very normal and cannot let the giant panda stay abroad to suffer, but several countries in the West have leased the giant panda, why only the Giant Panda has returned to China in advance due to the shortage of fresh bamboo? Because the bamboo at the Calgary Zoo in Canada is imported from China, while zoos in other countries are mostly solved nearby, not all of them are airlifted from China.
Many people think that the bamboo eaten by the giant pandas in the west must be airlifted from China, and when the media describes the giant pandas as "expensive", they like to say that "the giant pandas only eat bamboo from Sichuan, China, and the bamboo eaten by foreign giant pandas must be airlifted from Sichuan, and there are breeders who can speak Sichuan dialect."
Is this really the case? Of course not.
As mentioned earlier, the foreigners we deal with are shrewd businessmen, and reducing costs is what they are most good at, and it is impossible to airlift bamboo from Sichuan, the cost is too high. Giant pandas eat a huge amount of bamboo leaves, about 20 kilograms of fresh bamboo leaves a day, but the amount of feeding is greater than the amount of food, and a giant panda needs at least 30 kilograms of bamboo a day. The domestic zoo is more trench, wuhan zoo gives each giant panda 60 kilograms of bamboo every day, refer to my previous article Giant panda's "superpower": can eat 60 kilograms a day, defecated 40 times. Giant pandas only eat fresh bamboo, can not be transported in large quantities at a time, airlifting bamboo from Sichuan is certainly unrealistic, and the high cost is enough to deter most countries. Therefore, not all of the bamboo eaten by the giant pandas is airlifted from China, and most of them are solved nearby.
Bamboo is not unique to China. Bamboo is a collective term for subfamily bamboo species, with more than 1200 species, mainly distributed in the tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of the earth between 46° north latitude and 47° south latitude, except for Antarctica and Europe. Bamboo origin is divided into Asia-Pacific bamboo area, American bamboo area, African bamboo area, the world's total area of bamboo forests exceed 22 million hectares, The Asia-Pacific bamboo area has 17 million hectares, bamboo has more than 900 kinds, China has nearly 600 species.
As an economic plant and ornamental plant, bamboo has been introduced into cultivation by many countries, and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries have introduced a large number of bamboo species from Asian, African and Latin American countries, and there are 35 species of bamboo species introduced from China in the United States alone. Bamboo has grown on every continent except Antarctica.
The giant panda does not eat all bamboo, it eats about 60 kinds of bamboo, the most favorite to eat about 27 kinds, including cold arrow bamboo, white oleander, stick bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, thorn bamboo, bitter bamboo, August bamboo, etc., all kinds of bamboo flourishing period is different, to ensure that there are bamboo to eat every season.
Giant pandas eat a lot of bamboo species, some are easy to plant varieties, so after decades of panda leasing, Europe and the United States have long appeared a mature industrial chain, the Netherlands has a special company to plant bamboo to supply the giant pandas in Europe.
In 2017, the news that "Xingya" and "Wu Wen" arrived in the Netherlands revealed that the bamboo provided for the giant pandas in the Netherlands was the Dutch company bamboo giant, which planted bamboo varieties from China, and the Chinese side has recognized the quality of bamboo. After the panda arrives, the company will send the first batch of bamboo to the zoo, a total of more than 20 varieties, to see which varieties Xingya and Wuwen like to eat, like the varieties of a variety, do not like to plant, is completely "panda-oriented" enterprises.
Bennie Nielen, owner of the Dutch bamboo company Bamboo Giant.
In May this year, after the birth of the red panda in the Dutch zoo, bamboo giant specially imported 200 kilograms of fresh bamboo shoots from China to improve the taste of the giant panda. After learning that Canada would return the pandas, Bennie Nielen said that would not be the case in the Netherlands, where his company could supply 600-700 kilograms of bamboo to the zoo every week. And due to the impact of the epidemic, Bennie Nielen's orders have also increased, and he also has to transport 600 kilograms of bamboo to the Moscow Zoo every week to the Giant Pandas in Russia.
In addition, the giant pandas living in the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium eat bamboo produced in the Netherlands; and there are also bamboo producers for giant pandas in southern France, providing giant pandas living in France and Austria; the middle and low latitudes of Asia are suitable for bamboo growth, and the giant pandas living in Thailand, Malaysia and other countries eat local bamboo; the United States and Australia also have bamboo planting for giant pandas in the United States and Australia.
The bamboo eaten by the pandas in The Brigade also originated from the United States, but after being transferred to another zoo, it was instead flown by air from China, resulting in early returns to China.
The agreement with Canada at the time was a total lease for 10 years, the first 5 years (2013-2018) at the Toronto Zoo, and the last 5 years (2018-2023) to the Calgary Zoo. While at the Toronto Zoo, bamboo is imported from Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and airlifted 2-3 times a week. After transferring to the Calgary Zoo, the "rich and powerful" Kacheng Zoo changed to airlift fresh bamboo from Sichuan, in order to let the giant pandas eat the taste of their hometown, fresh bamboo is produced in the high mountains of Sichuan, hand-harvested by local farmers, and then sent to Beijing, transported to Kacheng by Hainan Airlines twice a week. Such a long transportation line has led to a shortage of fresh bamboo for giant pandas in Kacheng during the epidemic.
So why doesn't the Card City Zoo import from the United States? But combined with the current situation, I speculate that the deep reason is still related to zz.
Therefore, most of the bamboo eaten by the giant pandas is provided by the nearest origin, and not all of them are airlifted from Sichuan. If this is not the case, I am afraid that during this epidemic, the giant pandas who stay in the ocean will return to China, which is also very unfavorable to China's "panda diplomacy".