TOKYO: 1000’s of Japanese followers bid tearful farewell to their beloved panda couple that made their last public look at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo on Saturday earlier than returning to China for medical remedy.
The pair, Ri Ri and Shin Shin, are the mother and father of Xiang Xiang, the park-born idol that had returned house final yr.
Greater than 2,000 guests, many carrying T-shirts and carrying objects adorned by panda motifs, queued exterior the zoo hours earlier than the opening.Some mentioned they camped out in a single day to safe their likelihood.
The pandas, each 19 years outdated, arrived on the Ueno Zoo in 2011. Though their lease is sweet by 2026, Japan and China agreed to their return house because the ageing couple want remedy for hypertension, based on the zoo.
Hirono Sasaki, who waited to enter the zoo since 5 a.m., was crying. “They had been at all times my supply of consolation, so I am really feel extraordinarily unhappy,” she mentioned. “I cherished seeing Ri Ri climbing timber in her outdated enclosure. I hope she will be able to climb timber once more when she is again in China.”
After their hours lengthy wait, guests got just a few minutes inside their hut to view the black-and-white animals. Fortunate ones might get a glimpse of them nibbling on bamboo branches, however others might solely catch them throughout their naps.
China sends pandas overseas as an indication of goodwill however maintains possession over the animals and any cubs they produce. The animals are native to southwestern China and are an unofficial nationwide mascot.
Pandas, which reproduce hardly ever within the wild and depend on a food regimen of bamboo, stay among the many world’s most threatened species. An estimated 1,800 pandas reside within the wild, whereas one other 500 are in zoos or reserves, largely in Sichuan.
