The first giant panda to be born in France was given a touching farewell this Tuesday as he left the French zoo where he was born to make a long “return flight” to his ancestral China.
Yuan Meng, who was born in 2017 at Beauval Zoo in the Loire region of France, was cheered by visitors and zoo staff as he was driven to Charles de Gaulle Airport under a police escort for a 12-hour flight to the Chinese city of Chengdu on China Airlines.
The son of Yuan Zi and Huan Huan, the first pandas loaned to France by Chinese authorities in 2012, was trained for several days to comfortably prepare for the journey and without hesitation climbed into his special cage filled with bamboo for the journey.
“Everything went well. He said goodbye to his parents and sisters, with tears in the eyes of his handlers,” says Rodolphe Delord, director of the zoo.
“He can now live his life in a healthy way. Inevitably it will be an emotional moment, but all our animals born here have to leave one day. We are used to that,” he added.
Hundreds of people braved the morning rain to say goodbye to the panda. “It’s still sad, we’ve grown fond of the pandas. But we know he’ll do better there, for the good of the species,” said Caroline Bernard.
Their nine-year-old daughter Lilou was less resigned. “I cried, I’m sad he’s leaving. But I’m trying to tell myself he’ll get better there. It’s for his own good,” she said, her eyes red with tears.
In Chengdu, the panda will be transferred to a panda breeding center with a mission to help preserve its species.
Beijing only lends the pandas to foreign zoos, which usually have to return the cubs a few years after birth to participate in the country’s breeding program.
According to the environmental organization WWF, there are an estimated 1,860 giant pandas living in the wild, most of them in bamboo forests in the mountains of China. There are about 600 in captivity in panda centers, zoos and wildlife parks around the world.
Source: DN
