For his six-month-old birthday, Yuan Bao, the second giant panda born in captivity in Taiwan, was presented on Monday, December 28, to some 150 journalists and other guests at the Taipei Zoo, as he played alongside his mother.
He "grew up", assured the mayor of the capital Taipei, Ko Wen-je.
The young animal, conceived by artificial insemination, weighed 186 grams at birth, and now weighs 13 kg.
The Taiwan Zoo has seen many births this year, including that of a gorilla, koala, tapir and pangolin.
Second # Taiwan-born #panda cub Yuan Bao & her mother Yuan Yuan pic.twitter.com/q83Ih4zyRy
- Amber Wang (@ambermywang) December 28, 2020
Panda diplomacy
The parents of this young panda, Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan, were offered by China to Taiwan in 2008 to symbolize the improvement of relations between the two countries.
China, which uses its "panda diplomacy", has a habit of lending its own to foreign zoos, but had given this couple, whose names combined mean "reunion", or "unit".
The island and the mainland have been governed separately since 1949, but the Communist regime claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
The mother, Yuan Yuan, had already given birth to a female, Yuan Zai, in 2013, which was then the first panda birth in Taiwan.
Since then, the panda family has been the zoo's central attraction.
According to WWF, just over 1,800 large pandas still live in the wild.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR