Pandas Hua Bao and Jin Bao Bao, who, like their other relatives, have white fur with black markings around their eyes, ears, mouth, legs and shoulders, have been living at Ahtari Zoo since 2018.
Now their stay in Finland is coming to an end, more than eight years ahead of schedule.
The zoo said two pandas, a male and a female, will soon be quarantined before being returned to their home in November. Reuters.
The park simply can't afford to maintain it.
Big investments
The pandas, which Ähtäri has named Pyry and Lumi, have been a star attraction at the Finnish zoo for nearly seven years. The pandas have found a place in the zoo’s logo, and the first thing you see when you enter the zoo’s website is a picture of a friendly panda chewing on a bundle of green bamboo.
However, the magicians also cost the zoo dearly.
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The cost of building the panda house and its enclosure is over NOK 90 million. In addition, there are annual costs of over NOK 17 million.
Pandas come up with a lot of weird things. Here, Lumi climbs a tree. Photo: Ronnie Ricoma//Lehtikova/AP/NTB
Visitor numbers have not lived up to expectations in the Ähtäri area, which is off the beaten track in Finland. The park's debts have grown in recent years. The fact that inflation has risen in recent years has not helped either.
In 2023, the park requested state aid, which was rejected by the Finnish authorities.
Negotiations to return the panda to China have been ongoing for three years.
– We have now reached a point where the Chinese have said that the return can be done, Chairman Risto Sivonen said in Ähtäri on Tuesday, according to Reuters news agency.
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Panda Diplomacy
China's use of pandas as gifts is referred to as panda diplomacy.
The first known example of such a bear being used for diplomatic purposes occurred during the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent two pandas to the Japanese Emperor. China resumed this tradition after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, and has given pandas to a number of countries.
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Officially, the pandas are just being loaned. Perry and Lummi were supposed to live in Finland for 15 years.
Finland received the pandas from China after then-President Sauli Niinistö affirmed in 2017 that Finland stood behind the “one China” policy, a reference to Beijing's demand that countries wishing to establish diplomatic relations with China must sever or abandon formal relations with Taiwan.
A Finnish Foreign Ministry spokesman said the zoo's decision to return the pandas was a commercial decision made by the zoo and should not affect relations between Finland and China.
In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said China had tried to help the zoo, but the two countries had concluded after “friendly talks” that the pandas should be returned to China.
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