Photo courtesy of the giant panda "Mei Xiang" Xinhua News Agency
This is the most vivid and colorful black-and-white world in the world-compared with experienced diplomats, pandas can win favor and consensus without much words.
After a long wait, at 6 pm local time on August 21, the fourth child of giant pandas "Mei Xiang" and "Tian Tian" was born in the United States. The parents have lived in the Smithsonian National Zoo and Biological Conservation Institute (hereinafter referred to as the "National Zoo") in Washington for 20 years.
Meixiang gave birth at the age of 22 and became the second-oldest panda "elderly mother" in the world. Its 20-year experience in the United States has witnessed the development and changes of Sino-US relations.
Because of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, this year's panda webcast at the National Zoo in the United States ushered in more onlookers. At the moment when Mika gave birth, the website collapsed, igniting the anger of the audience, and the garden had to urge everyone to "be calm and fix it immediately."
After the birth of the little life, many people exclaimed "miracle" on the message board, and some replied: "She brought new hope to my life."
Most popular immigrants
Mei Xiang's conception was not simple. Affected by the epidemic, the US National Zoo was forced to close its doors to thank guests. One week later, on March 14th, Meixiang began to ovulate, and the zoo inspected and found that its progesterone level reached its peak on March 22nd.
If you want Meixiang to conceive, speed comes first. Female giant pandas have only one estrus a year, which lasts for 24-72 hours. Another problem is that the lives of the two giant pandas in the United States do not seem to be in harmony. Tim Tim, who has accompanied Meixiang for 20 years, is not an experienced "husband". Artificial insemination has become the only possible method.
Brandi Smith, deputy director of the National Zoo, said in an interview with the media: "If you need to overcome difficulties, it is now. People need stories of hope, success stories, and happy stories."
In the past, in order to increase the chances of conception, the zoo would extract fresh semen from Tiantian and at the same time use the frozen semen of other giant pandas stored in the library for two artificial inseminations. But this time, in order to minimize the number of operations, the garden only used Tiantian's frozen sperm.
Next is a long wait. Usually, after the 20th birthday, female giant pandas are no longer easy to have offspring, and Meixiang has shown "false pregnancy" several times. Even experienced veterinary experts are not too optimistic.
On August 14, the zoo couldn't hold back, and performed a B-ultrasound examination for Mika. Veterinarians found that in the only black and white ultrasound images, a young figure kicked and swims in the amniotic fluid, and its spine and blood flow were clearly visible.
"Please pray for it! We hope to have a healthy cub in the days to come!" On the Facebook homepage, the excitement of the National Zoo was beyond words. This speech attracted 498 comments and 6,389 likes.
Someone left a message: "In this crazy world, we desperately need such good news. In the past few years, watching panda live broadcast has made me spend many difficult times."
Facing this scene, Leslie Schmidt, who had worked as a volunteer at the zoo, felt cordial. When a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily recalled the first meeting with Mei Xiang, she used several "amazing" in a row. It was the summer when the eldest son "Taishan" of Meixiang and Tiantian was born, and it was also the first time Schmidt had a close encounter with a panda.
Tai Shan was born in July 2005. Some people refer to its first, baby-like tweet as "the call that Washington has waited for 33 years."
B-ultrasound image of Meixiang's inspection (source: National Zoo)
That was the big thing that Washingtonians had been waiting for since Nixon's time. In 1972, a pair of giant pandas "Lingling" and "Xingxing" were presented as a national gift by then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to then US President Nixon to commemorate that historic visit.
A little story was once widely circulated in China. After the state banquet, Zhou Enlai pointed to a "panda brand" cigarette box and told Mrs. Nixon, "I want to give you this." Mrs. Nixon politely refused, saying that she did not smoke. When Zhou Enlai told her that the gift she gave was a giant panda, she was pleasantly surprised and thanked her repeatedly.
A producer on National Public Radio recalled that when the two pandas arrived, the whole of Washington went crazy. The children in school practice calligraphy with heavy brushes; put their hands on the lunch bag to compare the size of the panda's paws; use an abacus to calculate the weight of the panda and how many catties of bamboo they eat a day, and then go to the store to eat the same amount of food as the panda Many "Panda Sundaes".
Regrettably, this pair of giant pandas spent a long time peacefully at the National Zoo in the United States, but left no offspring. They once gave birth to 5 cubs, none of them survived. Until 1999, Xingxing, the only remaining of the two giant pandas, was euthanized due to illness when he was 28 years old.
In order to make up for this shortcoming, in 2000, the National Zoo leased Meixiang and Tiantian from China for a period of 10 years. In December of that year, two pandas traveled for 15 hours to reach their destination. The fuselage of the special plane they took was painted with a panda eating bamboo pattern, which became the first impression of many citizens.
An American media reported at that time: "Washington is a politically savage and self-righteous city, but it was melted by pandas."
During the first five years of Meixiang's residence, her stomach did not move. Until 2005, when Mika was pregnant, the news made headlines in many media.
At that time, Schmidt applied to become a volunteer caring for pandas. Her job is to observe and mark Mei Xiang's behavior during pregnancy, and use the camera to track it so that more people can watch it online. Although she has to take on school work during the day, she is still working tirelessly on the night shift in the zoo.
Beloved baby
Meixiang is pregnant, and this "trailer" of a new life ignited people's emotions. In this summer shrouded by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, some media claimed that "panda fever" has become a new infectious disease and spread globally.
A spokesperson for the National Zoo told the media that within one week of the announcement, the traffic of panda live broadcast reached 12 times the previous peak.
In the black and white picture, Mika is quiet most of the time. In order to prevent network congestion, the zoo also set up a "threshold", the system will be cleared every 15 minutes, people need to refresh to enter.
This “webcast”, which started in 2005, may be the first to go viral. It experienced the transformation of the picture from blurry to clear, and witnessed the birth of Meixiang’s four children. It was called “the private world of panda mothers and cubs”. Online window".
In 2013, when Mei Xiang's second child, "Baby" was born, due to the US Congress budget dispute, the government was closed, and the government-funded National Zoo was also implicated. Panda Live was forced to stop broadcasting. When the live broadcast returned to normal 16 days later, NBC said with emotion: "Our country's nightmare is over."
Zoo staff cannot easily enter Meixiang's territory. Under the dual pressure of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and Meixiang's pregnancy, the panda house was closed to provide Meixiang with as quiet and independent space as possible. It was a small cage less than 5 square meters, covered with bamboo on the ground, and was gathered into a nest by Meixiang. It sleeps and licks its body most of the time.
Because Meixiang “can give birth at any time”, the zoo has prepared three incubators to prepare for the situation where twins are born and the panda mother cannot take care of it. "Bei Bei", born in August 2015, is the "lucky one" among the twins.
In the evening of August 21, Meixiang's body began to react in the video. She licked herself frequently until people heard new calls. Although the mother panda blocked the camera with her huge body, the veterinarian who was observing outside the field could still judge the health of the cubs from the calls of mother and child.
According to practice, a panda newborn is less than 100 days old and will not be named temporarily. The panda mother will guard the child, even without eating or drinking for a few days. The veterinarian needs to wait a few days before entering the "nest" to pick up the cubs for physical examination. This time, they did not rush, "At this point, we trust Mika, she is a competent mother."
When Tai Shan was born, he triggered a "cyber war." It is petite, only 1.82 pounds, 12 inches long, pink all over, and naked. The breeder joked, "It's like a stick of about 100 grams of butter."
After the full moon of Mount Tai, the zoo launched a naming vote. Five options were proposed by the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, including "Huasheng", "Shenghua", "Longshan", "Taishan" and "Qiangqiang". However, a group of netizens were unwilling to use hacking techniques to enter the voting website, forcibly adding a sixth option-"butter stick".
This attempt ended in failure. "Tarzan" has gained more than 200,000 supporters. Although it made its first appearance to meet people in December of that year, many of it was witnessed by the media and the public for the first time through its live panda video, including the first sneeze, birthday, playing in the snow, eating bamboo, Swim……
On the day of the "first show" at Taishan Zoo, 13,000 free tickets were robbed within two hours, and some ticket vendors sold tickets at a high price of US$500 on the E-Pai shopping website.
On Taishan's 1st birthday, a long queue was formed outside the Panda House 3 hours before the park opened. The zoo’s gift was an ice cake with bamboo leaves, carrots, pears, apples, and beets. The next day it had stomach troubles, causing fans to worry.
According to the initial agreement between China and the United States, pandas born overseas must be ready to be sent back to China when they grow up to two years old. At the strong request of the United States, the Chinese government agreed in 2007 to extend the time of "Taishan" in the United States by two years, and many fans were excited about it. Its birthday cake is getting bigger every year, and its body shape has grown from a "butter stick" to a "big hairball."
In February 2010, the day of farewell came, Schmidt remembered that many people poured into the zoo to participate in the farewell event. Some people left messages on the zoo’s official website, or sent their wishes and love on postcards to Sichuan, China.
In 2017, Schmidt took his children to Chengdu to see giant pandas and told them the story of being a volunteer. Mount Tai, with the largest number of "fans" in the world, has settled in the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center.
Messenger
Meixiang gave birth to a child successfully and attracted the attention of her hometown.
Zhang Hemin, a giant panda expert from the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, commented on this: "With the continuous maturity of giant panda breeding and management technology and reproduction technology... The 23-year-old'Haizi' successfully gave birth to twins, and then a 22-year-old. 'Meixiang' has estrus and successfully gave birth, indicating that the breeding years of giant pandas are also increasing. This is a new breakthrough in overcoming the three difficult problems of giant panda breeding."
Compared with the elderly Meixiang, the other two female pandas produced overseas this year are both "new mothers." On May 1, local time, "Wu Wen", who lives in the Ovihan Zoo in the Netherlands, gave birth to a baby panda. After voting on the Internet, he was named "Van Star". The name is taken from the names of the Dutch painter Van Gogh and the name of the panda father "Xingya", which is full of cultural connotations. On July 20, the giant panda "Hua Ni" in Everland Korea also gave birth to a baby panda safely.
According to the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, the center has established giant panda scientific research partnerships with 16 zoos in 14 countries around the world. There are currently 33 giant pandas living overseas and a total of 23 giant pandas have reproduced and survived, of which 18 have returned to China. .
Few people know that during World War II, in 1941, in 1941, sisters Song Meiling and Song Ailing, who were in charge of the relief work of Chinese refugees, decided to present precious and endangered giant pandas to the United States in 1941 in order to thank the United States United Relief Association for Chinese Refugees.
In the early 1960s, China established four panda sanctuaries and issued laws prohibiting hunting of many animals, including giant pandas. In the same year, the World Wide Fund for Nature was established, and its emblem was a giant panda in black and white.
This inspiration came from the giant panda "Qi Qi" who lived at the London Zoo at the time. Peter Scott, the founder of WWF, believes that "we want a beautiful, endangered animal that is loved by many people in the world, a solid, recognizable sign that can overcome all language barriers." In addition, in order to maximize the spread of the emblem, "black and white can save printing costs."
Before "Qi Qi", the panda "Ming" who stood by the London Zoo had experienced the bombing of London during World War II. After Ming's death in 1944, The Times issued an obituary for an animal for the first time, writing: "If it knows, it should go happily, because she brings joy to so many hearts. Even if the war is raging, it His departure will still not be ignored."
After 1982, the deteriorating ecological environment of giant pandas led to a sharp decrease in the number of giant pandas. China stopped donating giant pandas overseas and changed to lease. In the 1990s, short-term panda rental projects for commercial purposes ceased, and giant panda rentals turned to long-term loans in the name of breeding or protection.
It is not easy to meet the lease terms. Paying 500,000 to 1 million US dollars in rent every year, assisting the Chinese panda conservation project to obtain funds, and returning the cubs born overseas... These terms have not reduced the enthusiasm of people from all over the world for pandas. Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, South Korea and other countries have welcomed the pandas.
The funds harvested from the panda lease program are specifically used for panda protection, training panda conservation professionals, improving the level of panda breeding, environmental education for school students near the reserve, and restoration of destroyed forests.
In 2017, the Netherlands successfully rented giant pandas "Wu Wen" and "Xingya" after 15 years of hard work by three presidents. In 2019, the two pandas loaned to Denmark were broadcasted in real time by the local TV station on the day they arrived at Copenhagen Zoo. They stayed in a Chinese-style building resembling a "gossip map".
At the same time, Asian elephants from Vietnam, Malay bears from Burma, baboons from Germany, BMWs from Turkmenistan, and lions from Zimbabwe have also come to China as "friendly messengers" for people to visit.
On the U.S. Q&A website Quora, there are various questions about pandas. Someone asked "Why Canadian geese can't be rented like pandas", and immediately someone posted a picture of a big goose bravely pounced on a poor man; some commented on koalas, they don’t drink Water only eats a special kind of eucalyptus leaves, which is more difficult to raise than pandas. As for the question about which tiger and panda are suitable to be "ambassadors", some people answered, "When facing a tiger, you might only think of becoming a Chinese food on a plate, while pandas do not same".
In recent years, the number of giant pandas has increased significantly. In 2016, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) downgraded the endangered level of giant pandas from "endangered" to "vulnerable". At that time, the State Forestry Administration of China stated that “Giant pandas are still an endangered species and it is too early to reduce the protection level of giant pandas.”
Giant pandas traveling abroad do not always go smoothly. Because the supply of bamboo cannot be guaranteed during the epidemic, the Calgary Zoo in Canada decided to send back two pandas, Ershun and Damao, in advance. Previously, the giant panda "Nuan Nuan", who was born in Malaysia's National Zoo in 2015, had to return to China to eat his hometown meal because of his "mouthful".
According to the cooperation agreement signed between China and the United States, the leases of Meixiang and Tiantian will expire on December 7 this year, and it is still unknown whether the contract will be renewed in the future.
"In any case, this will be Mei Xiang's last cub. This is the end of an era." Brandy Smith, deputy director of the National Zoo, told the media, "We are a little bit melancholy because these pandas are very important to the city and the zoo. And we personally are of great significance."
Schmidt hopes that after the epidemic ends, he can rush to the zoo to take another look at Meixiang and Tim Tim, who have been with her for 20 years. "No matter what others see, in my heart, they are symbols of love and peace, and they also interpret the special relationship between China and the United States."
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Jiangshan Source: China Youth Daily