Visiting American-born pandas in China
Sep 20th, 2010 by wwftravel
A photo of Tai Shan while he was in the U.S. © Fernando Revilla
Travelers on WWF’s Wild & Ancient China trips in 2011 will have the opportunity to see two American-born giant pandas that returned to their ancestral homeland last year.
Three-year-old Mei Lan, who was born at the Atlanta Zoo, and 4-year-old Tai Shan from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., relocated to China in February 2010. Chinese and American officials have a longstanding deal that giant pandas are only on loan to the United States for research purposes. They – and any offspring born on U.S. soil – must be returned to China as part of the agreement.
The female Mei Lan is at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and Tai Shan, a male, lives at the Bifengxia Panda Base. WWF travelers will have the opportunity to visit both of these sites.
“Ever since Tai Shan was born in 2005 and Mei Lan in 2006, both pandas have become endearing goodwill ambassadors for China in the United States,” U.S. Consul General David Brown told the media in Chengdu upon the bears’ arrival in February. “They, along with their parents and the other pandas on loan from China … occupy a special place in the U.S.-China relationship.”
An estimated 1,600 giant pandas live in the wild in China and nearly 300 are in captive-breeding programs throughout the world. Both Mei Lan and Tai Shan are scheduled to become part of the centers’ breeding programs.
According to The Washington Post, Tai Shan will likely begin breeding in 2012, once he hits 6 ½ years old – the optimal time for male pandas. Mei Shan would begin breeding around age 4 ½.
In the meantime, they both continue to excel at their language lessons. Mei Lan, for example, learned 20 commands in English (“paw” and “lie down” among them, according to Atlanta Zoo officials), and she’s in the process of learning those words and more in Sichuan-dialect Chinese. Tai Shan, meanwhile, is learning Mandarin.
Join WWF’s Wild & Ancient China tour, May 15 – 26, 2011.
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