For the first time in 21 years
Loans from China: Two pandas celebrate their premiere at San Diego Zoo
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A Californian zoo has a new visitor attraction: two pandas from China are being presented to the public. Pandas are considered symbols of friendship between China and the countries to which they are sent by the People’s Republic.
San Diego. Premiere for Xin Bao and Yun Chuan: With the two loans from China, a southern Californian zoo is seeing newly arrived pandas in the USA for the first time in 21 years. After completing the acclimatization phase, the San Diego Zoo celebrated the opening of the “Panda Ridge” enclosure. The almost five-year-old male panda Yun Chuan and the almost four-year-old female Xin Bao showed themselves to the public in their new home.
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China announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Californian zoo in February. The animals arrived there at the end of June. So far they have been able to get used to their new surroundings – a spacious habitat with trees and rocks – without visitors. The female bear Xin Bao has a large, round face and fluffy ears, while the male panda can be recognized by his long, pointed nose, the zoo explained. His mother Zhen Zhen was born in San Diego in 2007 as the fourth panda baby and returned to China in 2010.
Male panda Yun Chuan eats bamboo in front of media representatives at the San Diego Zoo before the opening of the new panda enclosure “Panda Ridge”.
Last autumn, several pandas had to leave the zoo in the US capital Washington, which had housed giant pandas for decades – the loan contract had expired. By the end of 2024, two new pandas – a male and a female – are expected to arrive in Washington on loan from China.
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Pandas on loan
Pandas are considered symbols of friendship between China and the countries to which they are sent by the People’s Republic. For many years, there has been a “panda diplomacy” that Beijing uses strategically to convey a positive image of China and to show its gratitude for political favors. However, these are always only loans that – like young animals conceived abroad at the age of around two to four – must be returned to China. The USA was given two bears as a gift in 1972 after the historic visit of then US President Richard Nixon to Beijing.
The black and white bears, which are popular with many zoo visitors, are mostly native to China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. Giant pandas are not only considered extremely cute, they are also extremely rare. According to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), there are just over 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild in China.
