For all panda lovers within the US, there may be unhappy information. The Nationwide Zoo, in Washington DC, which has been the house to a few big pandas for 50 years, will quickly ship them again to China.
The three pandas are set to return in December this yr following the top of a three-year-long settlement with China’s wildlife company, reported Bloomberg.
With those in Washington DC gone, solely 4 big pandas will stay within the Atalanta Zoo which is anticipated to shift again by subsequent yr, until each nations strike a brand new deal amongst themselves, the report added.
Chee Meng Tan, who’s an affiliate professor on the College of Nottingham in Malaysia and research panda diplomacy, informed the Washington Put up, “That is maybe Beijing’s means of signalling to the West that they will not be very pleased with how issues are going.”
He added, “This can be a technique of telling individuals that you simply’re not treating us very effectively, so possibly we’ll pull out our pandas.”
Earlier than this, the pandas from San Diego and Memphis had left in 2019 and April 2023, respectively, the report added.
The primary occasion of China’s Panda Diplomacy might be dated again to 1941 however it wasn’t till President Nixon visited China in 1972 that the US have been rewarded with any. After his go to, the US have been gifted two pandas which have been stored on the Nationwide Zoo in Washington DC, the report added.
Over time, past political motives, the pandas – named Mei Xiang and Tian Tian – have additionally served the aim of leisure. Lately, their 3-year-old male cub, Xiao Qi Ji had additionally change into a centre of attraction for the gang of the zoo.
Some consultants have additionally urged that the choice to ship again the pandas won’t be solely political causes. They’ve risen to the purpose that pandas are now not underneath the classification of ‘Endangered Species’.
So, they really feel, China is making an attempt to determine their community of nationwide parks and sanctuary. This may increasingly have added to the truth that they don’t have to ship the pandas overseas anymore to preserve and breed.
