As of: April 2, 2024, 7:34 a.m
By: Christiane Kühl
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Pandas are China's most successful brand ambassadors. After a break, Beijing now wants to lend animals again - even to the USA. It is also about increasing the population of endangered bears.
Markus Söder could hardly stop raving: “Very, very cute animals,” shouted Bavaria’s Prime Minister during his visit to the panda breeding station in Chengdu, southwest China, shortly before Easter. “Simply sweet and cuddly.” Söder was able to observe several of the black and white bears from afar, including the twins Pit and Paule, once stars of the Berlin Zoo. The four-year-olds returned to China in December, according to the contracts. Pit and Paule's parents, ten-year-old Meng Meng and 13-year-old Jiao Qing, are now the only giant pandas in Germany; They have been living in the Berlin Zoo since 2017 and, according to their contract, they will stay for almost nine years. “A panda would also fit well with Bavaria, so peaceful,” said Söder in Chengdu. Who knows, maybe his visit to the panda base, which has been criticized by some, will ensure that the Munich Zoo also gets pandas one day.
Because China is resuming its panda diplomacy, which has been dormant for a few years. In February, the wildlife authority of the People's Republic concluded an “agreement on a new round of international cooperation to protect pandas” with the San Diego Zoo in California and the Madrid Zoo in Spain. Zoos around the world attach importance to the fact that they not only not only exhibit cute bears, but also participate in the conservation breeding of animals threatened with extinction. The Chinese authorities are also negotiating new pandas with the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington and Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo.
Panda loans for Europe – but not for the USA
Pandas are an attraction in many countries and are therefore the most successful soft power in the People's Republic. Panda diplomacy began more than 50 years ago when China gave then-US President Richard Nixon two bears. Since 1982, Beijing has only loaned the pandas to international zoos. Just like other countries do with endemic animals in need of protection - such as Australia with koalas and wombats. In the early years of his term, President Xi Jinping approved new panda loans across Europe, for example to the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland.
But the United States hasn't received any new bears in 20 years. Instead, almost everyone returned, most recently three from Washington in 2023. Only four pandas still live in the Atlanta Zoo and will fly to China in 2024. Not a good sign, because in the USA the panda treaties are considered an unofficial barometer of relations. And so it is certainly significant that Xi said after the summit with US President Joe Biden last November that he could imagine sending new pandas to America as “ambassadors of friendship.”
Cuddly bears as “friendship ambassadors”: China wants to ramp up its panda diplomacy again. © Li Chuanyou/Xinhua/IMAGO/
Zoo pandas are part of conservation breeding
But it's not just about image and friendship. Breeding in global zoos, as well as work at the panda base in Chengdu, are part of the rescue efforts for the giant panda. Since the 1980s, it has been clear how endangered the species is: China's first panda census counted just over 1,100 bears. Today, according to Chinese data, there are around 1,900 again.
Chinese panda conservation breeding is similar to centrally managed programs in Europe, such as that for bison, explains Florian Sicks, panda curator at the Berlin Zoo. “The global program for the giant panda is coordinated in China, so that the breeding recommendations, for example, come out from there,” said Sicks to
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. This means that China's zoologists know exactly which animals are related to each other and how closely they are related. This is crucial, says Sicks, “because panda pairs must not be closely related in order to ensure genetic diversity in the population.” The loans are organized accordingly.
Is the Berlin panda pregnant again?
China also benefits directly from panda diplomacy - especially when the bears have offspring abroad. The animals rarely mate in the wild. They are very lazy about sex, the females are only fertile for a few days each year. “It is important to observe the animals closely in order to find the right time,” explains Sicks. Shortly before Easter, panda Meng Meng's time had come at the Berlin Zoo. But because she showed no desire to mate with her husband, the veterinarians decided on artificial insemination on the night of the Tuesday before Easter. Both animals survived the procedure well.
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Now the waiting begins. “You only get certainty about the offspring of a giant panda shortly before birth,” said zoo director Andreas Knieriem. The female pandas, which weigh up to 100 kilograms, give birth to their babies as tiny, almost naked, pink creatures. Pit and Paule weighed 186 and 136 grams at birth. So there is no visible pregnancy belly.
In the longer term, the researchers want to release more and more young animals into the mountain forests of Sichuan Province, where, in addition to Chengdu, there are three other breeding stations and large protected areas. This is a laborious process that can take up to seven years. Only young animals that have to learn to be afraid of people right from the start are eligible for this. When the cubs are around 20 days old, the keepers put on a so-called “panda man” suit. All of this is only possible in China itself. This is also why young animals always have to return home. And so perhaps Pit and Paule's children will one day live in the wilderness.
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