Beauval Zoo: the stay of pandas loaned by China, extended until 2027

Europe 1 with AFP 16:48 p.m., April 11, 2023

The stay at the ZooParc de Beauval of the two giant pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, loaned by China since 2012, has been extended "until 2027", AFP learned Tuesday from the zoo of Saint-Aignan in the Loir-et-Cher. "The extension of the pandas was confirmed to me during the state trip to China" of Emmanuel Macron, told AFP Rodolphe Delord, the chief executive officer of the zoo, who was present in China with the French delegation. The two plantigrades leased to China arrived in Beauval in 2012, initially for ten years, to become one of the main attractions. Beijing uses pandas as symbols of its diplomatic friendships.

>>

READ ALSO – The zoo of Beauval, "on the entrepreneurial side, it is an incredible model"

If Huan Huan and Yuan Zi will extend their stay in the Loir-et-Cher, their first little Yuan Meng, born on August 4, 2017, will have to leave the zoo "in a few weeks". He must join the Chinese program of conservation of the species, according to Rodolphe Delord. Her sisters, twins Yuandudu and Huanlili, born on August 2, 2021, will return to China "in two years".

Pandas inflate the number of visitors per year

"It's a sadness, but what matters to us is the conservation of the species. It is therefore normal that they leave, "responded Rodolphe Delord, specifying that the "secret" cost of renting both parents was "lower than before". "Before the pandas, in 2011, we made 600,000 visitors a year. With pandas, we went to one million by 2012," said the zoo's CEO. "They gave us enormous media visibility and we were able to do colossal work. (...) In 2022, we welcomed two million visitors," he said.

Since 2016, giant pandas are no longer "endangered" of extinction on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). But the species remains classified as "vulnerable", while 500 pandas live in captivity and 2,000 in the wild in China.