TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Putting politics aside for a moment, supporters gathered to congratulate the Taipei Zoo’s oldest panda on his 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan’s enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her mate Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at the age of 18, but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, who are now 11 and 4 years old respectively and still live at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas a fun distraction. “And I just think it’s really funny and cute,” Shu said.
Giant pandas are native to China and Beijing gives them as a sign of political friendshipYuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the parties, which split in 1949 amid civil war. China claims the island as its own territory, which it can annex by military force if necessary.
Due to habitat loss and a remarkably low birth rate, the giant panda population in the mountains of western China has declined to about 1,900, while only 600 pandas remain in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.
