Baltimore (WJZ)– The National Zoo (click here) said Wednesday, Bao Bao, the zoo’s giant femal panda, is preparing for her departure to China.
Bao Bao was born at the zoo on Aug. 23, 2014, and the first cub to survive birth since 2005 at the time.
“As part of the Zoo’s cooperative long-term breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, all cubs born at the Zoo move to China by the time they turn 4 years old,” the zoo said in a statement
China owns all giant pandas in U.S. zoos and requires that cubs born here be sent “home” about the time they reach breeding age.
“Bao Bao is very special to us at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo,”
said Brandie Smith, associate director of animal care sciences. “She was
the first surviving cub born at the Zoo since 2005. She’s captured the
hearts of people all over the world who watched her grow up on the panda
cams, and she has been an ambassador for conservation. We are sad to
see her go, but excited for the contributions she is going to continue
to make to the global giant panda population."
Bao has been living apart from her mother, Mei Xiang,
since March 2015. Giant pandas are solitary in the wild, and cubs
separate from their mothers to establish their own territories between
18 months and 2 years old, the statement said....
Bye, bye to "Bao Bao" as he joins his new future in the bamboo forests of China.
January 19, 2017
By Zhao Yusha
Chinese netizens (click here) expressed their outrage after a Shanghai zoo announced on Thursday that two pandas died in December 2016, and slammed the zoo for exhibiting the pandas despite their illness.
The
Shanghai Wildlife Park announced on its Sina Weibo on Thursday that
21-year-old panda Guo Guo died on December 26, 2016 because of acute
pancreatitis and multiple organ failure.
The mother panda was
quarantined for treatment on December 19 shortly after she showed
symptoms of fever, vomiting, diarrhea, stomachache and discharged
intestinal mucus.
Following the announcement, netizens who have visited the zoo blamed it for the pandas' deaths.
"I
went to the Shanghai Wildlife Park in December and Hua Sheng was
clearly sick. Why did you insist on exposing her to the public?" said a
Net user codenamed "yimiaoyishijie."
Many also wondered why the zoo announced the deaths about a month later....
