After years of unsuccessful attempts to obtain a cub, Edinburgh Zoo announced this Wednesday (4) that it will return its pair of pandas to China in 2023, the only such gift in the entire United Kingdom.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) said it plans to give Yang Guang and Tian Tian a “grand send-off” at the zoo before their departure this year.
“As the UK’s only giant pandas, they are incredibly popular with visitors, help connect millions of people with nature and raise vital funds for wildlife conservation,” said ZSS Executive Director David Field.
The panda couple arrived in Edinburgh in December 2011 under a ten-year loan agreement with the Chinese Society for Wildlife Conservation.
But it soon became clear that they had no desire to reproduce. Zookeepers attempted to artificially inseminate Tian Tian in 2013, but were unsuccessful.
Yang Guang was later castrated after being treated for testicular cancer.
Because giant pandas naturally lose interest in mating or don’t know how to do it, they have great difficulties reproducing in captivity.
Attempts to breed pandas in captivity began in China in 1955, but did not come to fruition until Ming Ming was born in 1963 at the Beijing Zoo.
Originating from the Tibetan Plateau in southwestern China, giant pandas are threatened by poachers, who kill them for their skins, and illegal deforestation, which affects the growth of their main food source, bamboo.
Pandas International estimates that the population of giant pandas in the wild is currently around 1,864 individuals.
About 600 are kept in captivity in specialized centers, zoos and nature parks around the world.
According to Edinburgh Zoo, Yang Guang and Tian Tian could leave the Scottish capital in August 2023, two years after their loan was extended.
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