After more than a decade of fruitless efforts to reproduce it
After more than a decade of fruitless attempts to breed, the only ever pair on British soil will return to China this year without having started a family, Edinburgh Zoo announced today.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) plans to hold Yang Guang (‘Sun’) and Tian Tian (Beloved) a “huge” farewell ceremony ahead of their planned departure this year.
“They were incredibly popular with visitors” and helped “connect millions of people with nature and raise money for nature conservation,” said RZSS director general David Field.
“We will create as many opportunities as possible so that the world can say goodbye to them and celebrate the amazing impact” of the two pandas, “helping to create a world where nature is protected, valued and loved,” he said.
The two pandas had arrived in Edinburgh in December 2011 as part of a 10-year deal, which was extended, with the Chinese Wildlife Association.
The pair were also entitled to a tartan created in their honour, black and white for their fur and red in tribute to China.
But very quickly, it appeared that the couple did not pay attention to this. After several fruitless mating attempts, Tian Tian underwent artificial insemination in 2013 and 2014, to no avail.
Yang Guang was then castrated in 2018 due to testicular cancer.
Breeding pandas is particularly difficult in captivity. Females are only fertile for 24 to 36 hours in the spring, according to Panda Conservation International.
Free in nature, everything lives in southwest China. Their population has been decimated by poachers, who hunted them for their fur, but also by the damage of illegal deforestation and the destruction of bamboo shoots, which are the pandas’ main food.
According to the organization Pandas International, their population today stands at 1,864, of which about 600 live in captivity around the world. Yang Guang and Tian Tian may leave Edinburgh at the end of October 2023, according to the zoo.
Their presence in Scotland also contributed to panda breeding research, David Field pointed out.
RES-EMP
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