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What happen to Lele and Yaya?

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.



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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.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Zoo has revealed the cause of death of Le Le, the giant panda that passed away last month. According to Rebecca Winchester, the zoo's communications specialist, Le Le died of heart disease.

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China began to offer pandas to other nations only on ten-year lease. The standard lease terms include a fee of up to US$1 million per year and a provision that any cubs born during the lease period be the property of the People's Republic of China.

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The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around age 3 or 4. The San Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.

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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.

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Giant panda Ya Ya celebrates 23rd birthday at Beijing Zoo - YouTube.

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As a gesture of goodwill following President Nixon's seminal state visit, Premier Enlai gifted two giant pandas to the American people. Nestled in the Nation's Capital and with free admission, the President and Mrs. Nixon selected the Smithsonian's National Zoo as the home for the giant panda bears.

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Despite her American credentials, Bao Bao is the property of the Chinese government — as are her parents and all other giant pandas in zoos around the world. And if, a few years from now, the US does something that displeases the Chinese government, Bao Bao's parents and her younger brother Bei Bei could be taken away.

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At dinner in Beijing, China, in February 1972, First Lady Patricia Nixon mentioned her fondness for giant pandas to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. As a gesture of goodwill following President Nixon's seminal state visit, Premier Enlai gifted two giant pandas to the American people.

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There, keepers wear panda costumes sprayed with panda urine and feces to mask their human scent. “It looks so funny on the surface, but it's serious work, too,” Vitale said. The idea is to limit the bears' familiarity with humans as much as possible so that they can be conditioned to survive in the wild.

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