Panda pair to return to China ahead of schedule: Finnish zoo

Finland will return a pair of giant pandas to China ahead of schedule due to cost issues, the Global Times learned from Ähtäri Zoo on Wednesday, noting that the two pandas are in good condition and a farewell party is being planned for them.

General curator of Ähtäri Zoo, Marko Haapakoski, told the Global Times in an email on Wednesday that the zoo has been facing many challenges since 2020, and most of them were impossible to predict. The situation at hand is a sum of many factors such as the decrease in yearly visitors due to the pandemic, following inflation and a considerable rise in interest rates in Finland.

Despite Chinese partners’ unprecedented help and support, and Ähtäri Zoo’s many efforts, the zoo found itself in a situation where a difficult decision of returning the pandas needed to be made, Haapakoski said.

He explained, "The decision was made after friendly negotiations between partners in China and Finland. All parties agreed together that the best solution for everyone involved is to return the pandas to China."

Regarding the upcoming plans for the pandas, Haapakoski said the pandas will remain visible to the public until October 20. After that, the panda house will be closed to the public, and the pandas will spend their final month in Ähtäri in quarantine.

He also said they "are planning a farewell party for the pandas and hope that many visitors will come to wish them a good journey back to China."

The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, arrived in Finland in January 2018 on a 15-year loan under a research program. Haapakosk said the pandas are doing really good. The female panda, Lumi (Jin Baobao), is returning to normal after a pseudopregnancy, and bamboo has started to appeal to her again. Pyry (Huo Bao) has been doing well all the time.

According to Reuters on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Finland's foreign ministry said that the return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo, which did not involve Finland's government and should not impact relations between the two countries.

Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.