The first giant pandas born in Germany are celebrating their fourth birthday as the Berlin Zoo prepares to send them to China
Paule eats a cake made of ice cream, vegetables and fruits to celebrate their fourth birthday, at the Berlin Zoo in Berlin, Thursday Aug, 31, 2023. The panda twins Pit and Paule were born as the first panda offspring in Germany on Aug. 31, 2019, at the Berlin Zoo.
While China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot as part of a policy of “panda diplomacy,″ the country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms. Pit and Paule's parents, Jiao Qing and Meng Meng, arrived in Berlin in 2017. Florian Sicks, the zoo's curator for mammals, said the young pandas belong to China and its Chengdu Panda Base, and officials hope the pair will travel there soon.
“As a rule, this happens at age 2 or 3,” Sicks said. “Because of the pandemic, it was delayed a bit so that they are now celebrating their fourth birthday here, which we of course are very, very happy about. But at the moment, we assume that this will probably be the last birthday the two of them will celebrate here in Berlin.”
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
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