Tours (France) (AFP) – Two pandas at a zoo in central France will return to China in November after the female was diagnosed with kidney failure, the park’s director told AFP on Monday.
Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi arrived at the Beauval Zoo in 2012 as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” programme, which sees the black-and-white bears dispatched across the globe as soft-power ambassadors.
The two pandas, both 17, had been due to stay in France until January 2027 but they will return to the Chengdu panda sanctuary, said zoo director Rodolphe Delord, adding that the zoo had been in touch with the Chinese authorities.
“The female has kidney failure, a chronic disease common in ageing carnivores. We therefore prefer to transport her to China before her condition worsens,” he told AFP, adding she still showed a good appetite and normal behaviour.
Delord said Huan Huan and Yuan Zi were expected to return to China in November 2025 “so they can live out their retirement in peace”.
The pair produced three cubs while in France – the first pandas to do so in the country – and became star attractions at the Beauval zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher.
The eldest of the offspring, Yuan Meng, left France in 2024, while twins born in 2021 are expected to remain at the Beauval zoo for the time being “to raise visitors’ awareness of the need to protect this iconic species”, Delord said.
The giant panda was downgraded last year from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of at-risk species.
Delord said he hoped to extend the zoo’s partnership with China beyond 2027.
“And perhaps bring more pandas in the future,” he added.
The Beauval Zoo welcomed some two million visitors in 2023, generating revenues of around 113 million euros ($133 million).
So that article in the feed the other day about Pandas only existing in Mexico and China was bullshit.
Pandas only live naturally in China and it is almost impossible to get them to breed in captivity because they are as dumb as they are rare, so China lends pandas out to countries that… please the Chinese leadership. This is called Panda diplomacy.
China did give Mexico a panda couple once, but they are dead now. (The pandas, not the Chinese).
There is at least one panda still alive in Mexico.
I could be wrong about that. If there’s still a live offspring in Mexico from the panda couple that was gifted by China, then I guess it is not owned by China and the article you mentioned has some truth to it.
Correct!
Although China shifted from panda gifts to a policy of high-priced loans in 1984, Mexico has retained ownership of the locally born pandas since their lineage traces to gifted pandas.
In 1981 Ying Ying gave birth to Tohui, who in turn mothered Xin Xin (with Chia Chia, a gifted panda originally at the London Zoo). Xin Xin is the last living panda not owned by China.
From the aforementioned Wikipedia article.
I’m glad we got that sorted :-)
This actually blew my mind, I was like “no way are there any pandas in the world not owned by China!” but I was wrong. lol
Idk what article you’re talking about but usually you don’t include animals in captivity to that list.
If I brought a kangaroo from Australia and it lived with me in my house it would not be correct to say that Kangaroos exist in America
