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China will loan Australia new giant pandas to replace a popular pair that failed to produce offspring in more than a decade together, visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang has announced.
Adelaide Zoo has been home to Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009 when they were loaned by China as part of a global preservation scheme that also serves as a tool of “panda diplomacy”.
Breeding panda cubs is a notoriously difficult task for the low-sexed creatures and hopes of a pregnancy in Adelaide, including through the use of artificial insemination, have been repeatedly dashed.
“Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been away from home for 15 years, I guess they must have missed their home a lot – so they will return to China before the end of the year,” Mr Li premier said.
“But what I can tell you is that we will provide a new pair of equally beautiful, lovely and adorable pandas as soon as possible.”
China would provide Australia with candidates to choose from, said Mr Li, who landed in Adelaide on a four-day fence-mending trip after Beijing withdrew a string of trade sanctions on major Australian exports.
There are an estimated 1,860 giant pandas left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF.
However the animals, which were removed from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s endangered species list in 2016, still face serious threats from loss of habitat and fragmentation.
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