The panda couple formed by the female Hua Zui Ba and the male Bing Xing, aged 21 and 23, are retiring and are already preparing their trip back to China. The couple has lived in the Madrid zoo since, after the state trip of King Juan Carlos and Sofia in 2007, the Asian giant approved the temporary transfer of the animals as a gesture of friendship between Spain and China. The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, who is visiting Spain and this Monday held meetings with the King and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced the return of the animals to the Sichuan nature reserve to to live their last years there and, at the same time, has committed to sending two younger pandas to Spain as soon as possible.
Wang Yi, who on Sunday participated in a working meeting in Cordoba with the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, announced the exchange of pandas: “When they return to China we will send a pair of younger pandas again to continue the friendship that lasts more than 40 years. After the meeting, José Manuel Albares also announced that China is going to lift the embargo on the beef sector, which will thus be able to freely access the Chinese market.
Almost fifty years ago, the Chinese government began the so-called panda diplomacy and in its timid openings to the world, official visits by the leaders of friendly nations received one or two of the rare panda bears as a gift. Kings Juan Carlos and Sofia visited China for the first time in 1978 and the Chinese government presented them with a panda bear, Shao Shao, who arrived in Spain months later. After being installed in the Madrid Zoo, she was inseminated with the semen of the panda bear Chang Chang, who lived in the London Zoo, and in 1982 she gave birth to the famous Chu Lin, who enjoyed great popularity and shared, for some years, the podium of favorite animals along with Copito de Nieve, the albino gorilla that lived in the Barcelona zoo.
Shao Shao died in Madrid shortly after the birth of Chu Lin who, in turn, died in 1996. Since then, Spain once again pursued the donation of a panda bear and finally, after the second state visit of King Juan Carlos and Sofía to China, in 2007, two male and female specimens arrived. Over the years, China no longer gave these animals as gifts but rented them out (around one million euros every ten years, paid by the centers that exhibit the animals) with the obligation to return them to their origin to continue with the conservation and reproduction program for these animals.
During the time that Hua Zui Ba and Bing maintain a genetically healthy and strong population that allows its population to expand. Currently there are 1,800 panda bears in the wild, although controlled in the Sichuan nature reserve, and about three hundred in different zoos in China and the rest of the world.
