Two giant pandas, male Lily and female Xinxin, were sent from Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on a charter flight to China from Narita International Airport. This was reported by the Kyodo agency.
The truck with the pandas left the zoo at 4 in the morning, some of the menagerie employees cried as they said goodbye to their pets. A large crowd of Tokyo residents also came to see the animals off.
“I feel a little alone, but I am incredibly grateful. “I want them to live in peace in the environment in which they were born and raised.” – said the zoo director Yutaka Fukuda.
Upon their return, the 19-year-old animals will be taken to the species conservation and research center in Sichuan province.
Lily and Xinxing were born in Sichuan Province in 2005 and came to Ueno Zoo on loan in February 2011 to conduct reproductive research. According to the zoo management, in recent years the animals suffered from high blood pressure, which they tried to stabilize with medication. However, after consulting with experts, it was decided to return the animals to their homeland, where they will undergo treatment.
In 2017, Lily and
Let us remember that all the giant pandas in the world belong to China. Since 1984, foreign countries have been able to keep bamboo bears only on a lease basis, paying Beijing at least $250 million for each pair of animals, but the animals remain the property of China, which returns home after it expires. the agreement.
In 2023, Japan, Great Britain and the Netherlands, as well as the Washington and Memphis zoos, delivered pandas to China; At the end of 2024, the pandas at Zoo Atlanta and Australia will return to their homeland.
As reported EADailypandas Lumi and Pyryu will return from the Finnish Jahtäri Zoo to their homeland before the end of this year. The animals arrived in Finland in 2018 under a 15-year lease.
The return of pandas to China was preceded by a number of factors: a decline in the number of tourists amid the coronavirus pandemic, rising interest rates and inflation. As a result, the zoo is experiencing continued financial problems.
It costs the zoo 1 million euros a year to maintain the animals. At the same time, a year earlier, a 5 million euro aid package for the zoo, planned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, was withdrawn from the country’s additional budget.
