Down to its last panda, Mexico ponders what’s next
Mexico city: Xin Xin, the last panda in Latin America, is not your average bear. A native of Mexico, she’s the only remaining member of a diaspora descended from giant pandas China gifted to foreign countries during the 1970s and 1980s.
Mexico’s Chapultepec Zoo is one of only two zoos that houses pandas without the direct supervision of the Chinese government.
That era may soon end after more than 50 years because Xin Xin, the granddaughter of pandas gifted by China, is childless, in menopause and, at 32, very old.
It could be the end for pandas in Latin America if Mexico balks at the price of a new panda.
Xin Xin is a second-generation Mexican-born panda, tracing her lineage to Pe Pe and Ying Ying, who arrived at the zoo in 1975.
They were part of China’s “panda diplomacy”, a period when the animals were gifted to countries.
In 1984, China ended panda gifts, switching to a policy of high-priced loans.
This history has made Mexico one of a few countries able to keep locally born panda cubs.
Since 1985, the loan programme has required that zoos return any cubs to China.
After Shuan Shuan’s death, Mexican officials began speaking with China’s ambassador.
The austere administration of Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador appears unlikely to agree to this price.
“Another arrangement will have to be found, but it will depend on the will of both countries,” said Fernando Gual, director of Mexico City Zoos and Wildlife Conservation.
Xin Xin’s own interests are more down to earth. She passes the time relaxing in a hammock and padding around her enclosure.
Sometimes, her trainer also hides her favourite treat, red apples.
Watching Xin Xin, Gual smiled as he remembered the July 1, 1990 morning when her mother Tohui surprised everyone at the zoo by giving birth to a four-ounce Xin Xin, far from the camera that recorded her movements 24 hours a day.
“It’s impossible not to have an attachment to these animals,” Gual said. “We saw most of them being born here.”