Scotland is saying goodbye to a pair of giant pandas after hosting them for around 12 years
Visitors to Edinburgh Zoo got their last chance to see and say goodbye to a pair of iconic giant pandas on Thursday as they returned home to China after more than a decade in Scotland.
Visitors line up outside Edinburgh Park to say goodbye to the panda
Yang Guang and Tian Tian will leave Scotland in early December after 12 years of residence there.
The pair of pandas have become a popular attraction since people lined the street outside the zoo to welcome them upon their arrival in 2011.
They are the latest pandas to leave the West after trade agreements expired and were not renewed by China.
Tian Tian in Edinburgh Park
The only U.S. zoo that includes pandas is in Atlanta, and its agreement expires next year.
The Washington National Zoo sent the three pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their cub, Xiao Zhijie, to China earlier this month.
The San Diego Zoo’s black and white bears were sent home in 2019, while the remaining pandas at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee returned earlier this year.
Senior observers of Chinese affairs have noted that Beijing is gradually withdrawing bears from American and European zoos due to tensions with Western governments over a range of issues.
However, during his recent visit to the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his government was “ready to continue” supplying bears to American zoos, which gave hope to panda lovers who hadn’t seen them for a long time. ‘last time.