Panda Shulan (Photo/CCTVNews)
Chinese netizens have expressed their anger at a response made by officials in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province to reports and photos of a panda foaming at the mouth in Lanzhou Zoo.
The ecology administration of Gansu published a statement on Tuesday, saying "panda Shulan's foaming is normal," explaining that the foam was either saliva or caused by the female panda being in heat.
Several posts with photos of Shulan foaming at the mouth were shared on Chinese social networks on Monday. Some netizens who had visited the zoo said the pandas there all looked scrawny, as if they had come down with some kind of skin disease.
These photos immediately caused concern about Shulan and her living conditions.
Some panda lovers even dug out a photo of Basi, a 37-year-old giant panda living in southeast China's Fujian Province, and compared the two.
"Comparing Shulan with 37-year-old Basi, don't you think there is something wrong? Shulan is only in its twenties," @qf_z said
Actually, it is not the first time that Shulan has been in the media spotlight. Last year, photos of Shulan suffering from an injury were posted online, with some netizens doubting whether or not the panda had been maltreated in Lanzhou. The zoo later clarified that the wound on Shulan's back was caused by sharp bamboo.
Giant pandas are dubbed "national treasures" and are listed as first-class state-level protected species. Any sign of potential mistreatment of pandas instantly makes headlines in China.
At the start of 2017, 21-year-old panda Guoguo died of acute pancreatitis in Shanghai Wild Animal Park. Five days later, Guoguo's cub Huasheng died of an intestinal disease in the same park. The successive deaths led netizens to ask why five pandas had died at the park within 10 years.
Though the park explained that it needed to invite professionals from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to treat the sick animals, netizens were less than convinced.
"Why are pandas in Sichuan in such good condition? Why do they [the pandas] die so soon in Shanghai?" questioned @Duantuinanshenjing.
"Not capable of caring for pandas. Please don't raise them," commented @Xuejia777.
The total number of giant pandas is increasing, but they still remain a rare and endangered species. At present, traditional threats to the species are on the decline, but new threats in the form of tourism, infrastructure construction, hydro-power and mining are becoming more severe for the species, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
