After more than 15 years, the Chinese government is expected to announce that Australia’s imported gentle giants, Fu Ni and Wang Wang, will soon be replaced by a new duo.
Ahead of the Chinese premier Li Qiang’s visit to Adelaide this weekend, speculation has grown about the future of Fu Ni and Wang Wang, with Anthony Albanese remarking that his government is “pro-panda”, and the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, stressing the importance of panda diplomacy “cultural exchange”.
The two animals at the centre of the current exchange, Fu Ni and Wang Wang, were loaned to Adelaide zoo in 2009, and are the only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere. But after failing to breed in more than a decade in Australia, it is expected that they will soon be on their way back to China.
While those at Adelaide zoo say it would have been a “great bonus to have [the pandas] breed”, it “wasn’t purely about having them breed”. The Zoo SA director, Dr Phil Ainsley, has previously said that the international giant panda research, conservation and breeding program they were part of was aimed at seeing how pandas could live in the southern hemisphere.
Both pandas are nearing 20. The oldest panda to give birth – at the National zoo in the US – was 23. While Ainsley said it was “very possible” that Fu Ni could still give birth, her chances looked slimmer as she aged.
Ainsley said in March that giant pandas had a very narrow window for reproduction, just 36 to 48 hours once a year where “everything has to be exactly right”.
Panda diplomacy, which has existed since the Tang dynasty, allows China to signal which countries are in its good books – though the countries have to pay for the pandas and the associated costs to raise them – and others with whom it has fallen out of favour.
In December 2023, pandas at Edinburgh zoo, the only giant pandas in the UK, were sent back to China. Similarly, panda loans were tenuous in the US, with China refusing to renew contracts in the late 2010s and early 2020s due to mounting political tensions.
It’s estimated that loan payments of about $1m are made to China each year. In South Australia, a 14 hectare plantation has been set up to grow 15 different species of bamboo.
Animal diplomacy expert Prof Nancy Cushing said the renewal of the agreement would highlight China’s willingness to maintain positive relations with Australia, and indicated that Australia had “upheld our end of the bargain” by caring for the pandas.
She said panda diplomacy played on the positive associations people have with the animals.
“Especially if you have an animal that is quite distinctive to a place, and you make a gift to somewhere where they don’t have that … it brings the other country to mind in a way that is positive,” she explained.
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She said animal diplomacy could “draw attention to an animal that is under threat, and is vulnerable to extinction” like the giant panda, which was downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” in September 2023.
“You’ll get more donations or more people that are interested in supporting activities that would help to extend the lives of species,” she said.
But Cushing also questioned whether keeping pandas in captivity actually benefited the animals: “For the individuals who are involved, this is pretty miserable, because none of them sign up to be diplomats, and they don’t get nice dinners and live the high life.”
Ainsley described Fu Ni and Wang Wang as “two of the most amazing animals I’ve ever seen in my career”. “We’ll be doing absolutely everything we can to keep pandas at the zoo, whether that’s keeping Fu Ni and Wang Wang or potentially new pandas, but that’ll be very dependent on the decision that’s made by China.”
Speaking on ABC Adelaide on Tuesday, Elaine Bensted, the chief executive of Zoos SA, said the decision was “always going to rest with China”.
“We’re still in those discussions … we’re not quite in the position to [provide updates] yet,” she said.
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Guardian
