Fan Xing was two years ago the first panda who was once born in the Netherlands. His name refers to Vincent van Goghthe most famous Dutch painter in China.
His parents Xing Ya and Wu Wen had come to our country from China three years earlier. Under the agreements with China, all three animals remain the property of the breeding program there.
In principle, China allows cubs to stay abroad for four years, but Ouwehands chooses to let the animal go earlier. In the wild, a panda also leaves its mother after a year or two and the zoo wants to follow that natural process as much as possible. Fan Xing will only be used for breeding in a few years, when he is sexually mature.
The giant panda, which only lives in China in the wild, has long been extremely endangered. Thanks to the international breeding program, more specimens of the species have been added in recent years and the species is now considered ‘vulnerable’.
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