Bye bye, Bei Bei: Chinese panda in US zoo farewelled with frozen treats, friendship bracelets
- The panda, who was born four years ago in Washington’s National Zoo, is being flown to China as part of a deal between the two countries
- Before he left, fans wrote postcards and made friendship bracelets for Bei Bei, the third panda to have been born at the zoo
Bei Bei, whose name means “precious treasure”, was born at the zoo in 2015.
Zoo officials had a week of special activities for humans at the zoo – along with frozen fruit cakes for Bei Bei – as keepers prepared to fly the 109kg (240-pound) panda off to China on Tuesday as part of a deal between the two countries.
China owns all giant pandas and leases them to US zoos; they have to go to China when they turn four years old so they can be bred.
His leaving comes at a time of uncertainty for pandas at the zoo, where they have been a nearly constant – and popular – attraction for the last 47 years.
Mei Xiang, his mother, had a “false pregnancy”, where female pandas can show signs of being pregnant but are not really pregnant, in March. That followed two other false pregnancies in the last few years.
For now, it is not known whether the zoo will get any new giant panda cubs. It is also unclear whether China will want back Mei Xiang and Bei Bei’s father Tian Tian, who were both born in China and have been on a long-term leases to the United States. Their lease expires next year on December 7.
Bei Bei is the third giant panda to have been born at the National Zoo and moved to China. Tai Shan moved in 2010, and Bao Bao moved in 2017.
A week of events marked Bei Bei’s imminent departure. Visitors over the weekend were served dumplings, courtesy of the Chinese Embassy. In turn, they wrote postcards and made friendship bracelets for the panda.
Bei Bei got treats, too, including ice cakes filled with frozen juice, sweet potato and sugar cane.
Over the last week, the zoo had put up messages on its social media accounts that read like a walk down memory lane of Bei Bei’s four years at the facility, using the hashtag #ByeByeBeiBei.
It shared the first ultrasound showing the panda and images of the cub playing in the snow at his enclosure.
The zoo said that pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating about 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day. And although pandas may look fluffy, their fur is “very coarse and dense like wool”, the zoo said on Twitter, adding that fur “acts as a cushion when cubs tumble and fall”.
There were also some reminders of how cute and entertaining Bei Bei was. One video from the panda cam at his exhibit showed Bei Bei doing two of his favourite things: climbing and tumbling.
The zoo also encouraged panda fans to make a mix tape of music that the panda might want to listen to on his 16-hour flight to China.
Over the weekend, zoo officials said they saw an uptick in visitors, with more than 12,700 coming Saturday and Sunday, compared with 5,500 during the same weekend in 2018.
Some visitors this weekend came from Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, New York and New Jersey, according to zoo officials.
On Tuesday morning, Bei Bei was taken from his enclosure at the zoo and put in a crate and driven to Dulles International Airport, where was put on a FedEx plane with keepers for a nonstop flight.
He had been training with his keepers the last few weeks on getting into – and staying in – the crate. A spokeswoman for the zoo said his crate training has “gone very well and easily”.
Pamela Baker-Masson, a spokeswoman for the zoo, said on Monday that “Bei Bei willingly goes into the crate, enjoys his treats”, and was “comfortable with the doors closed”.
Zoo officials said once they see Bei Bei off, they will focus on an agreement with the Chinese in 2020 regarding pandas.
“Bei Bei is just one of many conservation successes,” Baker-Masson said. “There is still a lot of conservation work to be done and for all the right and important reasons, we want to continue our giant panda programme.”
