PANDAS DEVOUR ICE CAKE AS ZOO CELEBRATES
WASHINGTON » The “cake” was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane, and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub, Xiao Qi Ji, got hold of it.
The National Zoo’s most famous tenants had an enthusiastic breakfast Saturday in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.
Xiao Qi Ji’s father, Tian Tian, largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighboring enclosure with the sounds of his chomping clearly audible during a statement by Chinese ambassador Qin Gang. The ambassador praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations.
Tian Tian received a similar cake for lunch.
In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China, Saturday’s celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program, which has helped bring the bears back from the brink of extinction.
Xiao Qi Ji’s birth in August 2020 was hailed as a near miracle, because of Mei Xiang’s advanced age of 22 and the fact that zoo workers performed the artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the pandemic shut the entire zoo.
The cub, now 20 months old, was given a name that translates as “little miracle.” His birth in midpandemic sparked a fresh wave of panda- mania.
The zoo’s original 1972 panda pair, Ling- Ling and Hsing- Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs. All were transported to China at age 4, under terms of the zoo’s agreement with the Chinese government.