WATCH | Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo bids farewell to giant pandas as they return to China after 12 years

Visitors of Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo said goodbye to a pair of popular giant pandas who are returning home to China after spending more than a decade in the United Kingdom on Thursday (Nov 30). 

Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived in Scotland in 2011 amid huge fanfare and being the UK’s only giant pandas they have been a popular attraction. Unfortunately, they are now due to return to China under the terms of a 10-year loan which was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

About Yang Guang and Tian Tian

Yang Guang and Tian Tian were the first pandas to arrive in the UK after 17 years, in 2011 in a plane dubbed the “FedEx Panda Express”. 

As per BBC, within a year the “panda effect” took over which boosted ticket sales about 50 per cent. 

The pair is set to embark on the long journey home in “early December” but zookeepers will restrict access to their enclosures for visitors from Thursday. 

The exact date of their departure has not been disclosed by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) which runs the Edinburgh Zoo citing security concerns. 

The RZSS paid an annual fee of one million dollars to China for the pandas. 

Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived in Edinburgh in December 2011 as a part of the 10-year arrangement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association which they were able to extend for two years. 

“Yang Guang is more of a people panda - he likes interaction with the keepers,” zookeeper Michael Livingstone who has been looking after the pandas since day one told BBC.

Livingstone during his time taking care of the pair has been able to understand their personalities over time. Tian Tian, as per the zookeeper in Edinburgh Zoo, is “completely different” and said that she only likes to interact when she wants to. 

He also spoke about how the staff is both anxious and sad about Yang Guang and Tian Tian’s departure as some of them have been with the bears the entire time. 

“Yang Guang and Tian Tian have had an incredible impact by inspiring millions of people to care about nature,” said RZSS Chief Executive David Field, in a statement. 

End of panda diplomacy in the West?

In November, Washington’s National Zoo sent its three pandas back to China, while the bears at the San Diego Zoo were sent home in 2019 and the only ones remaining at the Memphis Zoo were also returned earlier this year.

A report by the Associated Press citing analysts said it is being speculated that Beijing is gradually pulling its pandas out of American and European zoos due to a rise in tensions with the government in the West over a number of issues. 

However, during his recent visit to the US, President Xi Jinping said his government was “ready to continue” lending bears to American zoos. 

China has a long history of offering pandas as diplomatic gifts. The United States received its first pandas in 1972. However, after 12 years or so, panda diplomacy changed and the bears were no longer presented as gifts but rather loaned for 10 years, a period which could be extended.

(With inputs from agencies)