Update, 31 October 2019: the Giant Panda cubs will be staying at the Calgary Zoo a little bit longer! They are now expected to depart in early 2020.
The two Giant Panda cubs that have been staying, with their parents, at the Calgary Zoo for the last few years. have either just left or are about to leave our Zoo to go to China. Part of the agreement is that all pandas that are born outside of China have to go back to China when they are four years old to participate in the breeding program. It has been a true delight to have these wonderful animals to enjoy and appreciate. I can't tell which Panda is which, so I'm not sure if the one in this video is an adult or a cub.
"The twins' mother, Er Shun, and an adult male panda, Dao Mao, will stay in the Panda Passage at the zoo until 2023.
There may be more pandas at the zoo in the years to come as Er Shun is being monitored in the hopes that she was successfully artificial inseminated in early April through a joint effort between the Calgary Zoo and the Chengdu Research Base.
According to the International Union for Conversation of Nature, giant pandas are no longer considered endangered but are still labelled as vulnerable."
"In 2012 an agreement was signed between the Chinese and Canadian governments for a 10-year breeding loan of giant pandas. Er Shun and Da Mao arrived in Canada on March 25, 2013 to the Toronto Zoo. After being successfully artificially inseminated, Er Shun delivered her cubs, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue on October 13, 2015. These were the first giant pandas to be born in Canada.
With fewer than 1,800 giant pandas left in the wild, caring for these four giant pandas is important to ongoing conservation. Habitat destruction remains one of the biggest threats to pandas in the wild, much in the same way boreal forests and evergreen trees in Canada are a concern for wildlife in our country. More than half of giant panda habitat has been lost in the last fifty years." From Calgary Zoo website.
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