Giant panda Ya Ya celebrates 23rd birthday at Beijing Zoo - YouTube.
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Ya Ya was born in the Beijing Zoo in 2000 and was loaned to the Memphis Zoo in the United States under a 10-year agreement, which ended this April. During her stay in the US, Ya Ya and Le Le, the Memphis Zoo's male panda, were in poor health, which led to accusations that the US was not taking proper care of them.
The anatomical exam by the team of Memphis Zoo and Chinese experts does indicate that it was heart disease, but our experts will be able to speak more to that once the final report is in hand.” Le Le was born July 18, 1998, and was 25 years old at the time of his passing. He came to Memphis Zoo in 2003.
The pandas are treated as much like wild animals as possible. This is foremost a research unit, the workplace for resident Chinese and international scientists, and you can watch a documentary about their breeding projects.
Mexico's last giant panda, Xin Xin, lounges in her habitat at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. Xin Xin is the granddaughter of two pandas given to Mexico as a gift in 1975. Today, she's the only panda in Latin America and among the last in the world that doesn't belong to China.
The potential end of the National Zoo's panda era comes amid what veteran China-watchers say is a larger trend. With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.
In 2003, China agreed to a 10-year loan of two pandas – a male named Le Le and a female named Ya Ya – to the Memphis Zoo. After being renewed for another 10 years in 2013, the Memphis Zoo announced in December 2022 that both pandas would be sent back to China in April 2023. Le Le unexpectedly died on Feb.
American zoos do not actually own the pandas that we enjoy going to visit. China rents pandas out to the tune of $1 million a year. Zoos typically sign a 10-year contract, which means that at the end of that contract, a zoo will have spent $10 million renting one panda. And any cubs that are born while at the zoo?
But unless you live in China, the pandas that you're seeing are just visiting. That's because every one of the gentle giants in zoos around the world is on loan from China.