On November 10th, the giant panda born at the San Diego Zoo (California, USA) in early August was named Su Lin, which in Chinese means “the lovely boy“.
This male panda was born on August 2nd and received his name after 100 days, in accordance with tradition. Initially, the zoo mistakenly announced that it was a female panda.
The name of the panda was chosen by five visitors who voted online during their visit to the zoo, and it coincides with the name of another panda—the first giant panda brought to the U.S. by an explorer in 1936. The mother panda, Bai Yun, who is 13 years old, gave birth to Su Lin on August 2nd, just five days after the zoo announced she was pregnant.
As one of the species most at risk of extinction, the San Diego Zoo hired Bai Yun from China. She has previously given birth in 1999 and 2003.
Another panda was also born in Washington on July 9th and was named Tai Shan, which means “forest mountain.” It is very rare for pandas to give birth in captivity. Currently, there are only about 1,600 giant pandas living in the wild in the mountainous regions of Sichuan (western China) and approximately 160 are kept in captivity in various countries.
Since 1984, China has started leasing these famous pandas to foreign zoos, with rental fees reaching approximately $1 million per year.
The contract for leasing Bai Yun between Beijing and the San Diego Zoo lasts for three years at a price of $500,000 per year.
The San Diego Zoo is so vast that visitors cannot fully explore it in a single day. Besides the newborn panda, there are three other giant pandas: Bai Yun, Gao Gao, who is 13 years old, and Mei Sheng, who is 2 years old.
You can watch Su Lin live through the San Diego Zoo’s “Panda Cam” on their website: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/ex_panda_station.html.
