China Ends 12-Year Panda Loan With Scotland After The Program Failed To Produce A Cub

The only giant pandas in the UK have left Edinburgh Zoo and are now on their way back to their homeland, China, as it ends its 12-year panda loan with Scotland after the program failed to produce a cub.

Only Panda In UK

At 1:40 p.m. on Monday, Tian Tian and Yang Guang left the airport in the capital for Chengdu.

For the 13-hour voyage, the animals were loaded into specially-built boxes and placed aboard a Boeing 777 China Southern freight plane.

The two pandas were assisted by an RZSS veterinarian, an Edinburgh Zookeeper, and a Chinese delegate in the plane.

The zoo's blacksmith constructed two custom metal crates with sliding padlock doors, pee trays, and detachable screens to allow caretakers to monitor the animals while in flight.

Before the cartons were lifted aboard the airplane, a paperwork issue momentarily delayed their boarding on the tarmac.

To sustain them during the flight, a quantity of bamboo was also transferred onto the vessel.

David Field, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), said that both employees and guests were having a sad day.

"They were all feeling that emotion as they were literally waving them goodbye this morning," he added.

Travelers from all over the UK were drawn to Edinburgh Zoo when they learned that the most endearing residents and the only pandas in the country-were leaving after 12 years.

Weekend lines have grown lengthy, and fights have even broken out as guests fought for position against the glass windows of the animal feeding rooms.

Meanwhile, 52-year-old Sarah Greenwood was among the tourist that wants to get a glimpse of the panda before it leaves the country.

"I've been desperately trying to get here to see them. It's been a really tough year and a particularly tough month. And in the end, I was just like: 'I have to go. I don't care. I'm going.'"

Read Also: Giant Panda From China Dies of Mysterious Illness in Thailand Zoo

Failed Breeding Program

Tian Tian and Yang Guang arrived months after word spread that the Edinburgh Zoo was in financial distress in 2011.

Eight attempts at breeding, comprising one natural coupling and artificial insemination with frozen panda sperm and Yang Guang's sperm, were unsuccessful.

To attract attention, the zoo exaggerated Tian Tian's early fertility windows. Its store was remodeled to include panda-themed items.

The China and Scotland governments have a 10-year loan that was extended because of the pandemic, and they are expected to return in December.

Travers calculates that the zoo spent about £13.7 million ($17 million) on the two in total.

It paid China an annual charge of $1 million (£791,000) for the first ten years and $500,000 for the next two; £3 million was spent on constructing a large new enclosure; additional expenses included medical expenditures, a steady diet of cultivated bamboo that cost £2.4 million, a salary for keepers of at least £1.2 million, and extra for insurance.

The International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the category of pandas from endangered to vulnerable in 2016 due to the dramatic increase in the number of pandas in the wild from approximately 1,000 in the 1980s to 1,864 in 2015.

Related Article: First Panda Born In France Arrived In China To Join Conservation Program