Goodbye Beauval! Yuan Meng, the first panda born in France transferred to China in July

Chloé Lagadou with AFP // Photo credit: GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP 14:05 pm, May 04, 2023

Yuan Meng, the first baby panda born in France in August 2017 at the ZooParc de Beauval, will join China on July 4, announced Thursday to AFP the zoological park of Saint-Aignan (Loir-et-Cher). Now a young adult, the star panda will move this summer to the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center in Chengdu (China), "to breed with an unrelated female," said zoo CEO Rodolphe Delord.

"It will not be released into the wild"

The one whose name means "fulfillment of a dream" in Chinese, will take up residence "in the great parks" of Sichuan, "where his parents come from". "He will not be released into the wild, but his children can be reintroduced," said Rodolphe Delord. "There is now enough genetic diversity for reintroduction," he observed. A month before his departure, Yuan Meng, whose godmother is Brigitte Macron, will be placed in quarantine.

On July 4, a month before celebrating its sixth anniversary, the two-colored mammal will then head to Frankfurt Airport (Germany) in an air-conditioned truck. A healer and a veterinarian from Beauval will accompany him to Chengdu. Yuan Meng was originally supposed to have joined China at the age of three or four, but his stay was extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The young male will thus free up space for his younger sisters, twins Huanlili and Yuandudu, born on August 2, 2021 and who now weigh respectively 63 and 67 kg, according to Beauval.

"There's a lot of emotion. For us, it's an event, but it's the next logical step. What matters to us is the conservation of the species," said Rodolphe Delord. "He should already be gone. Promiscuity with his father is not good. It's an adult male now," he added.

A beautiful baby of 123 kilos

On August 4, 2017, the female Huan Huan had given birth to twins, recalls the ZooParc in a statement. The first "fragile" died "a few hours later despite the care provided". The second, Yuan Meng, "more lively and vigorous", is "today, aged 5 years and 9 months". It is now close to 123 kg.

Real stars of Beauval, its parents Yuan Zi and Huan Huan, loaned since 2012 by the Chinese authorities, have recently seen their stay extended until 2027. Outside China, only about twenty zoological parks have these herbivorous plantigrades, symbols of Beijing's diplomatic friendships.

Giant pandas are on the global red list of threatened species established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due in particular to global warming that threatens their habitat. Initially classified as an "endangered" species, the giant panda has since 2016 joined the status of "vulnerable" species, thanks in particular to the protection and reforestation efforts undertaken by Beijing.