A zoo in Finland has determined to return two big pandas to China eight years forward of schedule, citing monetary difficulties and a decline in customer numbers, in line with the Related Press.
Ähtäri Zoo, positioned 330 kilometres north of Helsinki, introduced on Wednesday that the pandas, Lumi and Pyry, can be returned “prematurely” later this 12 months. The pandas had been loaned to Finland in 2018 as a part of a 15-year settlement to mark the nation’s hundredth independence, however the zoo says it could not afford to maintain them because of monetary pressures.
“The maintenance of Lumi and Pyry, together with a preservation charge to China, grew to become an excessive amount of for the zoo to deal with,” the zoo mentioned. The pandas’ weight-reduction plan additionally added to the expense, which primarily consisted of bamboo flown in from the Netherlands.
The choice comes after the zoo confronted a number of challenges, together with a pointy drop in guests through the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, and the affect of Russia-Ukraine battle. The zoo constructed a particular panda enclosure costing €8 million in hopes of attracting extra vacationers, however sustaining the pandas has confirmed too costly, with prices amounting to €1.5 million yearly.
Regardless of efforts by the Chinese language Embassy in Helsinki to help the zoo, monetary difficulties remained a constant problem. The pandas will enter quarantine in October earlier than their return to China.
Finland was the primary Nordic nation to obtain pandas from China, a gesture of goodwill marking diplomatic ties between the 2 nations, which had been established in 1950.
