Guests in Taiwan have gathered on the Taipei Zoo to assist rejoice an enormous panda’s birthday, with politics put aside.
The panda, Yuanyaun, has turned 20 years previous.
It first arrived on the zoo in 2008 from China, based on the Related Press.
Zookeepers gave the feminine panda a birthday cake within the form of the quantity 20, with totally different edible decorations.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian pupil in Taiwan, stated she discovered on-line clips of the pandas an satisfying distraction.
“I simply discover it actually humorous and cute,” Shu stated, because the AP reported.
Yuanyuan arrived on the zoo along with her accomplice, Tuantuan, who died at age 18 in 2022.
The panda couple had two feminine cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, at present ages 11 and 4, and each nonetheless residing on the zoo.
The lifespan of pandas within the wild is about 15 to twenty years — and about 30 years for these in human care, based on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo.
There are as few as 1,864 large pandas that stay of their native habitat, whereas one other 600 pandas stay in zoos and breeding facilities all over the world, based on the zoo.
Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived throughout a considerably calm time between China and Taiwan, stated the AP.
Taiwan started its annual Han Kuang struggle video games, designed to simulate precise fight, as tensions simmer with China, which views Taiwan as its sovereign territory, Reuters reported final month.
Ambassador Barbara Okay. Bodine, a professor of diplomacy and director of the Institute for the Research of Diplomacy on the Edmund A. Walsh Faculty of International Service at Georgetown College, stated pandas are an expression of fine standing by the Chinese language authorities, as mirrored by the gifting of those animals, based on Georgetown College.
“It’s fairly troublesome for a authorities to talk on to the general public of one other nation, particularly if it needs to affect public perceptions of itself. Pandas are a reasonably efficient software to perform this given how a lot they attraction to animal lovers,” Bodine informed Georgetown in a Might interview.
Two pandas arrived on the San Diego Zoo in August, marking the primary time pandas have been despatched to the U.S. in 21 years.
And the Nationwide Zoo in Washington introduced in Might that China will ship two younger large pandas to Washington, months after returning three pandas.
Beijing introduced two large pandas as presents to the U.S. in 1972 after President Richard Nixon’s historic go to to the nation.
China’s ambassador to the United States Xie Feng informed Reuters that the brand new panda cooperation settlement was “an excellent signal” for U.S.-China relations.
The 2 pandas are anticipated to reach by the tip of the 12 months.
The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
