(Ya’an) After delighting millions of visitors around the world with their adorable facial expressions, their nonchalant walks and their fluffy looks, pandas born abroad return to China and adapt to their new lives.
These furry ambassadors are loaned to foreign zoos as part of Beijing’s “panda diplomacy.” A few years after their birth, their young are then sent to China to participate in breeding programs.
Watching them carelessly devour bamboo in their spacious enclosures at a conservation center in Sichuan province, however, they seem far from imagining their important diplomatic role. And even less to think about the survival of their species.
“However, our work is very intense and marked by urgency,” said Zhang Hemin, chief expert of the China Giant Panda Preservation and Research Center, during a recent press trip. “We need to replenish wild panda populations (thanks to those) in captivity. »
Behind him, the panda Bei Bei, born in the United States, sorts bamboo shoots with his paws, at this base located in the city of Ya’an. “Following the fourth national panda census, we found that free-ranging pandas had formed 33 groups, but 22 of them were relatively small in number,” he explains.
“Without our help, they risk becoming extinct within 30 to 50 years.”
Pandas are native to the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
The first placement in captivity dates back to the 1980s and was aimed at saving them from starvation, recalls Qi Dunwu, deputy director of the Dujiangyan Panda Reintroduction and Breeding Research Center.
Most of them were later released. At the same time, a breeding program made it possible to increase the captive population to more than 700 individuals, according to Zhang Hemin.
Since 2003, 12 captive pandas have been released into the wild and ten have survived, Qi Dunwu points out.
In addition to having to prepare the mammals for the dangers of wildlife, authorities must ensure that they are sent to habitats with enough bamboo and space.
According to the organization WWF, which specializes in environmental protection, there are around 1,860 pandas left in the wild.
Removed in 2016 from the list of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, these animals nevertheless continue to face the loss and fragmentation of their habitat.
Researchers and policy makers in China are working to connect these habitats to allow pandas to mix and reproduce. More than 40 nature reserves have been grouped together to form the Giant Panda National Park which covers nearly 22,000 square kilometers.
These conservation programs are partly funded by fees paid by foreign zoos, which hope to attract more visitors and pay China millions of euros in multi-year loan deals.
Diplomatic vagaries, however, lead Beijing to sometimes recall pandas after their loan expires, without them being replaced.
Britain’s only pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, left Scotland in December after 12 years without having cubs. In November, three pandas from the National Zoo in Washington took a one-way ticket to China.
Some, however, are going the opposite way: Beijing indicated in February that it had signed agreements to send some to San Diego and two will return to Washington before the end of 2024.
In Ya’an, the panda Fan The animal has adapted to its new diet. In particular, he had to… learn to understand Chinese, a language he was not used to hearing.
“When they come back, we first speak English to those who understand English, then we gradually speak Chinese to them,” explains Li Xiaoyan.
“During this stage, we must give them love, attention and ensure that there is good interaction with the guardians. »