(Image via Mexico News Daily)

Staff Writer: Skyler Pereyra 

Email: spereyra@umassd.edu

The Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico is the first institution outside of China to successfully breed Giant Pandas in captivity. The zoo’s first pair of Pandas were gifted by China as a sign of friendship and arrived in Mexico on September 10th, 1975. 

Pe-Pe and Ying-Ying were born about a year before they arrived in Mexico, and in 1980, the pair gave birth to the first panda born outside of China, Xen Li, who unfortunately died 8 days after birth. 

In 1981, Tohui became their second offspring and the first overseas-born giant panda to survive into adulthood. 2 years later, in 1983, they brought Liang Liang into the world. 

From there, the couple proceeded to have two sets of twins between 1985-1987. First, an unnamed cub who died two days after birth, and Xia Hua. Then, Ping Ping and Shaun Shaun. 

Tohui and Chia Chia (another gifted panda from the London Zoo) became the parents of the now last giant panda in Latin America, Xin Xin. 

Xin Xin was born on July 1st, 1990, and she is currently the oldest living giant panda outside of China at a whopping 35 years old. Frías, her zookeeper, has been working with her for 25 years and has developed a close relationship with the panda. 

He arrives early to “check on her breathing before preparing a breakfast of biscuits, cooked rice, carrots, and crushed apples.”

He explained to AP News that when he first joined the care team, he would sit with Xin Xin and talk to her so she would become accustomed to his voice. Frías also “made sure to wear the same fragrance each day so that she would recognize his scent,” as pandas have a highly developed sense of smell used to communicate and find each other during mating.  

Most impressively, Xin Xin is currently the oldest panda in captivity, with a panda’s average age in the wild being 15-20 years. However, the record holder for the oldest panda ever in captivity goes to 38-year-old Jia Jia, a female who resided at Ocean Park Hong Kong.

Xin Xin sleeps for 15 hours a day, and her zookeeper leads her through exercises, “where she will sit, open her mouth, extend her paw, and lie down.” The zoo director also reported to the AP News that, despite her teeth and joints not being in great shape (which is normal for elderly pandas), Xin Xin is in good health. 

Attempts to breed Xin Xin began in the 2000s, when a giant panda named Ling-Ling from the Ueno Zoo in Japan traveled to Mexico and stayed from January to April; however, the two never hit it off. The zoo also attempted to artificially inseminate Xin Xin yearly, but as she aged, the more impossible it became. 

An archived article from 2003 explained that the Chapultepec Zoo had “gone through a battery of tests and has ruled out fertility problems on either side of the equation.”  

In the wild, pandas have several partners to choose from, which is difficult to replicate in captivity due to financial constraints. The zoo also believes an underlying issue between their mating incompatibility is related to Ling-Ling having “a sort of long-time attachment to female Tong Tong, who died in Japan in 2000 after they had lived together for many years.”

Mexico has not figured out what it will do once Xin Xin dies. Of course, they would like to have another panda in place of Xin Xin, but since 1984, China has stopped gifting pandas to other countries in favor of leasing them out. They currently charge $1 million a year per panda for 10-15 years; however, Mexico has chosen not to agree to enter a deal with China, instead, they are hoping to find another arrangement. 

The World Wildlife Fund lists the extinction risk of pandas as vulnerable, with a wild population of 1,864. The CEO of the World Wildlife Fund–China stated in 2017 that, “Everyone should celebrate this achievement. But pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly planned infrastructure projects. Remember, there are still only 1,864 left in the wild.”