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Big pandas from China might quickly come to the USA once more, based on an announcement from the Chinese language Embassy in the USA, as Beijing plans to proceed its panda diplomacy with Western international locations.
In accordance with the assertion, the China Wildlife Conservation Union reached agreements with San Diego Zoo in California and Madrid Zoo in Spain “on a brand new spherical of worldwide big panda conservation cooperation.”
The settlement will maintain alive a greater than five-decade-old custom of China lending pandas to US zoos as an indication of pleasant diplomacy between the 2 international locations. The return of many pandas from the USA to China over the previous a number of years has raised questions on whether or not the follow is ending.
In accordance with the embassy assertion, China can also be in talks with the Nationwide Zoo in Washington, DC and the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.
“It has at all times been our intention and hope that the Zoo could have big pandas sooner or later, and we’ll proceed our analysis right here and conservation work in China,” Dr. Brandy Smith, director of the Smithsonian's Nationwide Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, stated in an announcement. ” assertion. He stated the Nationwide Zoo was in discussions with the China Wildlife Conservation Federation “to develop a future big panda program.”
Dr. Megan Owen, vice chairman of conservation science on the San Diego Zoo, stated in an announcement that the zoo is “taking necessary steps to make sure we’re ready for a possible return.”
In accordance with the announcement, the brand new spherical of what the Chinese language Embassy referred to as “cooperative analysis” will deal with controlling and stopping illness amongst big pandas and others.
The San Diego Zoo despatched its final panda again to China in 2019. And final April, the Memphis Zoo returned its feminine big panda, Yaya. Animal welfare activists had been involved on the time by movies and pictures of Ya Ya, which confirmed her hair was matted and he or she seemed considerably skinny. Animal rights teams had campaigned for his launch and blamed the zoo for the loss of life of Ya Ya's companion, Le Lay. The Memphis Zoo and Chinese language officers denied any abuses.
Then, final November, the Smithsonian Nationwide Zoo in Washington flew its two older grownup pandas, Mei Jiang and Tian Tian, and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, again to China on a 19-hour FedEx flight, Panda Categorical.
That transfer led to hypothesis that rising tensions between the U.S. and Chinese language governments had been behind the pandas' return to Washington, however Nationwide Zoo officers and scientists stated every of the three pandas had been on the age when they need to be returned to China. .
The pandas' departure left Atlanta the one place in the USA the place big pandas (two adults and two cubs) might be seen, though these bears had been scheduled to return to China someday this 12 months.
Panda diplomacy between the USA and China dates again to the Seventies. It started in 1972 after President Nixon's historic go to to China, which normalized relations between the 2 international locations. Inside two months, China had despatched a feminine and male panda to the Nationwide Zoo. The unique pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, lived collectively on the zoo, producing 5 cubs, none of which survived.
Zoos that purchase pandas from China pay an annual payment to maintain the animals, and sometimes accomplish that for not less than just a few years. Zoos that host pandas in the USA have for many years negotiated their very own contracts with conservation teams in China.
Whereas beloved diplomats chew their bamboo, unaware of their geopolitical significance, critics have stated panda diplomacy has been utilized by China to melt its authoritarian picture and divert consideration from its document of human rights abuses.
Chinese language chief Xi Jinping hinted in a speech final fall that extra big pandas might be coming to U.S. zoos. Mr. Xi stated on the time, “We stand able to proceed our cooperation with the USA on panda conservation, and can do our greatest to fulfill the needs of Californians to deepen the pleasant relations between our two peoples.” Can go.”
In accordance with the World Wildlife Fund, there are simply over 1,860 pandas left within the wild, because the species stays weak since being pushed to the brink of extinction within the Nineteen Nineties. They dwell largely in temperate forests within the mountains of southwest China, the place they subsist on bamboo, of which they want 26 to 84 kilos per day.