Pandas in European zoos. Big panda. Hug with a giant panda

home To the question: Which cities in Russia have pandas (circus zoos or something similar...)??? given by the author Dmitry Kibisov the best answer is
There are none! Sometimes they brought me to Moskovsky, but only on trips.
Because China prohibits the export of them forever, there is only the opportunity to literally “rent” them - for a lot of money, of course, a million dollars! + subject to adequate maintenance and for a strictly specified period of time (exactly 1 year).
Here, read about pandas when they were in Moscow:
The twentieth century In 1957, the giant panda first settled in Russia, in a special house on the territory of the Moscow Zoo. It was a large male named Pin-Pin. And in the summer of 1959, we managed to purchase a second copy, according to the plan, in pair with Pin-Pin. His name was An-An, but, unfortunately, he also turned out to be a male. So two handsome little boys lived in Moscow. In 1961, an Austrian businessman took to China large group African animals and exchanged her for a young female giant panda named Chi-Chi. With this “zoological star,” as one of the prominent English zoologists called it, the owner of Chi-Chi arrived in England, where he sold it to the London Zoological Society for huge money. In 1966, the British proposed to the Moscow Zoo to combine the Moscow gentleman An-An with Chi-Chi. They agreed, and the overseas bride arrived from London to Moscow by special plane. It was housed in a transport “carriage” made of plexiglass, non-ferrous metals and plastic. This extraordinary guest was met by zoologists, employees of the capital's zoo, employees of the British Embassy and a great many correspondents. One of them said jokingly: “Due to the nature of my work, I often visit international airport
Chi-Chi lived at the Moscow Zoo for six months, but did not become friends with An-An and was sent back. In 1968, the experiment was repeated. This time An-An flew to visit Chi-Chi. He lived in London for six months and also to no avail. But, as you know, every cloud has a silver lining: both meetings, although they did not give the desired result, helped us better understand the peculiarities of the biology of giant pandas. For example, no one suspected that animals that are good-natured in appearance and completely gentle in character can, under certain circumstances, be very aggressive. Sometimes there were even brutal fights between our heroes. It was necessary to separate them using fire hoses, blank shots from hunting rifles, and also use special pikes and shields made of thick plywood. When attacking and defending, the animals showed great dexterity and techniques typical of predators: grabbing the enemy with their front paws, powerful blows to the enemy’s head with their paws, rapid ramming with their entire body weight, grabbing with their teeth, and so on.
Twenty first century
Visit bamboo bears to Russia took place as part of the Beijing Days in Moscow in the summer of 2001. Ben-Ben is a male, celebrated his fourth birthday in Moscow on July 24, Wen-Ven is a female, she is nine years old.
(it with)
But here are the links - where there are pandas in the world's zoos - see. na - in Berlin and Vienna there is, for example - this is one of those places that is closer. and here is the list:
1. Schönbrunn Zoo (German: Tiergarten Schönbrunn), Austria;
2. Scientific Research Center in Chengdu (The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (hereafter Chengdu Panda Base), China;
3. Atlanta Zoo (USA);
4. Panda breeding center in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, China (Wolong National Nature Reserve) - temporarily closed;
5. Adelaide Zoo, Australia (Adelaide Zoo);
6. Kobe Oji Zoo, China;
7. Madrid Zoo, Spain;
8. Edinburgh Zoo, UK (Scotland);
9. Chiang Mai Zoo, Thailand;
10. Bei Jing Zoo, China;
11. Memphis Zoo, USA;
12. Ocean Park, Hong Kong;
13.
Natalia
Higher intelligence
(131262)
In China itself, of course, there are more opportunities to see them)

Where do pandas live? Surely many will answer: of course, in China. But China is a huge country, and seeing a panda there is far from easy.

The places where pandas live are primarily due to the fact that pandas, although classified as predators, are actually herbivores. In addition, they do not eat just any plant foods, but only one plant - bamboo.

Of the several hundred species of bamboo, the panda consumes only a few, which grow exactly where pandas live.

A very rare animal that many people have never seen with their own eyes, except perhaps on a TV screen or on the Internet. And this is not surprising, because there are now just over one and a half thousand pandas left on earth, and for most it is simply impossible to get to those places where pandas live in natural conditions. While other rare animals can be seen in zoos, you can only see the panda in a few, the largest zoos in the world. And all this is due to the fact that the panda is not an ordinary animal, it is a predator that eats bamboo and does not recognize other food. For unknown reasons, many centuries ago pandas switched to plant foods. Why exactly bamboo is difficult to answer, but most likely it was bamboo that was more accessible to pandas in their places of residence. And although bamboo is a subtropical plant found on many continents, it is in southeast Asia that it is most widespread and these are exactly the places where pandas live.

What continent does the panda live on?

Big panda quite a large animal, growing up to 150 kg. Although in appearance it resembles a real bear, being a herbivore, in general it is a rather peaceful animal. For this reason, the panda is very careful and chooses to live hard to reach places. But the panda constantly needs a lot of food, and since its main food is bamboo, the giant panda’s permanent habitat is bamboo forests on the slopes of the mountains.

Currently, the panda lives only on the mainland Eurasia.

One of the most extensive areas where bamboo grows is the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau in southwest China. These are the provinces of China: Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Guizhou and part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. These places are chosen by these bamboo bears and live here for hundreds and thousands of years. This region central China with large areas of bamboo forests - the only habitat of the giant panda in the world.

China's population is constantly growing, and at such a pace that the Chinese need new territories. Over the past half century, the population has increased so much that these inaccessible regions where pandas live have begun to be developed. More or less flat areas in these provinces began to be cleared, bamboo forests were cut down, and the freed land was turned into fields, towns and cities; forests in mountainous areas were cut down.

In China, bamboo has long been used as a material for construction, furniture and household utensils, which were used mainly by local residents. In places where bamboo grows, work was constantly carried out to harvest bamboo and, despite the fact that bamboo grows very quickly, bamboo forests did not have time to recover and their areas were catastrophically reduced. And for a normal existence, only one pair of pandas needs an area of ​​​​about three thousand hectares of bamboo forest.

With the advent of nanotechnology, new materials began to be produced from bamboo: bamboo laminate, finishing materials, filler, textiles, which have gained recognition throughout the world as natural and non-allergenic substitutes for once popular synthetic ones. This increased the demand for bamboo, and a bamboo harvesting boom began in China. The bamboo thickets began to disappear before our eyes and the panda's living space began to shrink catastrophically. Pandas living in natural environment began to move higher into the mountains and further from people, their numbers began to quickly decrease.

To preserve the numbers of this rare animal, the Chinese government began to take effective measures. In 1998, a law was passed to stop deforestation and create nature reserves and national parks. True, this is not a single area, but consists of separate enclaves, and sometimes problems arise due to the fact that in some reserves there is a decrease in the growth of bamboo, and the pandas living there experience a lack of food, but nevertheless it produced results. The number of pandas began to increase, albeit gradually. In addition, protecting forests saves China's ecosystem from destruction. So at the source of the Yangtze River, one of the most important Chinese water arteries, the quality of water has increased significantly, and the creation of ecological tourism has become a good source of income for the population living in the mountains, who previously made money from harvesting bamboo.

Where else does the panda live?

China is the only country in the world where the panda lives, its unique national symbol, along with the Great Wall of China. Not in any country black and white panda no longer lives in natural conditions. And in China you can see a bamboo bear in almost only one place. After the earthquake in 2008 severely damaged the most large nature reserve Wolong pandas, in Sichuan province, the bulk of the pandas were transported to a research center for panda breeding, not far from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Over time, this center in the Bifengxia area of ​​Ya'an town turned into the world's largest panda zoo.

This center has all the conditions for living and breeding of these animals. Pandas are not kept in enclosures, as is usually the case in zoos, but almost in natural conditions. large areas, on which special structures made of logs have been built, on which pandas can have fun. In the center there is special services: peculiar " kindergarten» for babies, hospital, laboratory, science Center and a museum. Pandas are fed cut bamboo harvested from the mountains and various nutritional supplements. Today, this center is home to the largest population of pandas in the world.

Of course, you can see a panda live without traveling to China. Since the panda is a very interesting animal, people have long tried to catch them and keep them in zoos, although this was quite a difficult task. In 1959, there were only 7 pandas in zoos around the world, 5 of which were in Beijing Zoo and one each in Moscow Zoo and the Zoological Society of London Zoo. Now they are in many zoos around the world.

Pandas in zoos

For a very large fee, the Chinese lease pandas to famous zoos.

• Schönbrunn Zoo in Austria
• Atlanta Zoo in the USA
• Adelaide Zoo in Australia
• Madrid Zoo in Spain
• Edinburgh Zoo in the UK; River Safari in Singapore
• Memphis Zoo in the USA; Ocean Park in Hong Kong
• San Diego Zoo in the USA; Smithsonian National Zoo in the USA
• Zoo in Berlin in Germany
• Zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Taipei Zoo in Taiwan
• Ueno Zoo in Japan
• Toronto Zoo, Canada
• Beauval Zoo in France; Mexico City Zoo in Mexico
• Shirahama amusement park in Japan

There are no pandas in Russian zoos now, but in the fifties of the last century there were pandas in the Moscow Zoo. The first panda came to Russia in 1955. According to more reliable sources, it was a fairly young individual, a male, and at that time he weighed only 20 kg, that is, he was very young. According to the customs in China, each panda has a name, ours was called Pin Pin. They created quite decent conditions for him, but there were problems with food. Bamboo does not grow in the Moscow region; it had to be delivered by plane from Abkhazia, so in addition to bamboo, he was accustomed to local food. Per day Pin-Pin received: 500 bamboo shoots with leaves, 2 kg of oatmeal or rice porridge with milk, 2 eggs, 400 grams of fruit juice, 3-4 carrots, tea with sugar and birch or willow branches. Pin Pin lived until 1961 and died at the age of 6 years. Probably the reason early death were incorrect conditions maintenance and feeding, he ate a lot and moved little, in the spring of 1960 his weight reached 185 kilograms.

In 1959, they purchased another An-An panda and wanted to create a pair, but it turned out to be also a male. An An was also fed a little bamboo, but his main food was: porridge, fruits, vegetables, sweet tea, and instead of bamboo, birch, willow and linden brooms. Oddly enough, he got used to this food and grew quite normally. Its weight reached more than 150 kg, and its length was about 1.5 meters. He lived until 1972 and died at the age of 15.

Zoologists have repeatedly tried to obtain offspring in captivity. And Chinese specialists have begun to succeed. They decided to do this in Europe as well. There was a female panda at the Zoological Society of London Zoo named Chi-Chi. In 1966, the leadership of the Zoological Society of London suggested that the Moscow Zoo try to connect the female Chi-Chi with the male An-An. The English panda was brought to Moscow by plane and tried to be brought together with An-An. But friendship did not work out. Moreover, both pandas showed great aggression towards each other, started real fights with each other, and had to be separated, sometimes even with the help of fire hoses and gun shots. Six months were fruitless and Chi-Chi was taken back to London. In 1968, they tried to repeat the experiment, this time An-An was taken to London, where he spent six months, but also to no avail, the pandas could not find a common language.

After this, Russians were able to see live pandas only in 2001, when, during the Beijing Culture Days in Moscow, two pandas were brought to the Moscow Zoo. For this purpose, a special agreement was concluded between the parties, which stipulated all aspects of the delivery and maintenance of pandas. They were accompanied by Chinese specialists, and insurance was taken out for a huge amount just in case. The pandas, four-year-old male Ben-Ben and nine-year-old female Wen-Wen, stayed at the Moscow Zoo for only two months. There were twice as many visitors to the Moscow Zoo these days as usual, and on Sunday it was almost impossible to get there at all. By the way, both pandas that visited Russia were born in the Beijing Zoo. Their names are also not arbitrary: the 9-year-old female panda Wen-Wen received her name in honor of the director of the zoo, Comrade Wen, and the male Ben-Ben, which means Bull in Chinese, was named so because he was born in the year of the Ox. They were kept in different enclosures.

Now a special “China” pavilion is being built at the Moscow Zoo, in which, as the press promises, black-and-white and red pandas from Chengdu will live. It has not yet been announced under what conditions the pandas will be transferred, but in any case, soon Muscovites and guests of the capital will be able to see these amazing animals with their own eyes.

The Moscow Zoo is waiting for a pair of giant pandas from Chinese zoo Chengdu. According to the press service of the capital's zoo, the animals will be housed in the China pavilion, construction of which will begin in 2017.

“The exact date for the start of construction of the pavilion will be determined after negotiations general director Moscow Zoo with the Chengdu Panda Park, they will take place in April. We would like to receive a couple of pandas, but it is not yet known whether they will be given to us on a paid or free basis,” the press service explained.

The China Pavilion will appear next to the greenhouse at the Moscow Zoo. It is expected that it will consist of three bulk levels. On the first level there will be a bird park, where you can see the blue magpie, white eared pheasant and other birds.

On the second level there will be an enclosure for a giant salamander, similar to that at the Prague Zoo.

The third level of the pavilion will be home to two species of pandas: red pandas, already living in the Moscow Zoo, and large black and white ones, which should be brought from Chengdu.

Negotiations are also underway with the Prague Zoo about the transfer of golden monkeys for the pavilion. Since the golden monkeys are part of the conservation program of the European Association of Zoos, they can be given away only when it is clear in what conditions they are going to be housed, the press service of the Moscow Zoo clarified.

The zoo noted that depending on the basis on which the animals will be obtained, as well as taking into account the amount of funding for the project by sponsors, entrance to the pavilion may be free or for a small additional fee.

The first time a giant panda appeared on Russian territory was in 1957. Then a panda named Pin-pin was placed in separate luxury apartments at the Moscow Zoo. The panda came to visit Moscow. Then we managed to acquire another panda, An-An, who was supposed to be paired with the male Pin-Ping. However, it later turned out that An-An is also a male and it was not possible to cross the pandas.

Four years later, zoo managers decided to try again. In 1961, London Zoo offered to reunite one male with their female, and Moscow Zoo officials happily agreed. The groom An-An and the bride Chi-Chi were placed in a separate, highly comfortable enclosure. But the animals did not become friends and no offspring were obtained.

Last on this moment The visit of giant pandas to the Moscow Zoo took place in 2001. For just a few weeks, two giant pandas, a male and a female (Wen-Wen and Ben-Ben), were brought to the Moscow Zoo as part of the Beijing Days in Moscow.

(function(w, d, n, s, t) ( w[n] = w[n] || ; w[n].push(function() ( Ya.Context.AdvManager.render(( blockId: "R-A -143470-6", renderTo: "yandex_rtb_R-A-143470-6", async: true )); )); t = d.getElementsByTagName("script"); s = d.createElement("script"); s .type = "text/javascript"; s.src = "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async = true; , this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks");

In China, their images can be found everywhere. These include children's toys, souvenir magnets, stickers, and appliqués on clothes. It became one of the symbols of Chinese diplomacy in the 70s of the twentieth century, when there was a warming of relations between the PRC and the United States. The panda is an endangered species wildlife, according to scientists, about 1500-1600 individuals have survived. That is why she appears on the WWF logo.

Giant pandas eat bamboo. To fully provide herself with the necessary substances, she must eat at least 30 kg of leaves per day! And here lies the main problem. On the one hand, giant pandas are under state protection; killing them is punishable by the death penalty. However, they are also considered one of the main culprits in the death of bamboo groves, and local residents These animals are often destroyed.

Naturally, there are pandas. And here are some photos of these cute animals. You just need to keep in mind that there are usually a lot of people around them, everyone is trying to take pictures of them. However, pandas are accustomed to the attention of people and willingly pose for them. The pandas of the Beijing Zoo are the favorites of residents and guests of the Chinese capital!

PS. The quality of the photos is unimportant, because... The pandas were a bit far away and we had to use digital zoom in addition to optical zoom.

© Maria Anashina, website

© Website, 2009-2019. Copying and reprinting of any materials and photographs from the site in electronic publications and printed publications prohibited.

Which of the people who are not idlely interested in the animal world in all its diversity has not dreamed of seeing the pearl of the southern Chinese fauna, the rarest giant panda, the black and white bamboo bear, about which there were long and fierce debates - is it a bear or a raccoon? I dreamed too. I read and re-read so much, and I learned the story of the discovery of the beast by the missionary naturalist Father Armand David by heart. However, I was lucky enough to see the first giant panda alive in my life (the stuffed animal in the St. Petersburg Zoo Museum of the Academy of Sciences does not count) only at the age of 36.

Bao Bao at the Berlin Zoo

This happened at the Berlin Zoo, which was called the West Berlin Zoo for 34 years. Moreover, there was not one panda here, but two at once: the male Bao Bao and the female Yan Yan.

Bao Bao at the Berlin Zoo

The first was gifted by the Chinese government to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1980, and the second came to Berlin 15 years later as part of a captive breeding program for the species.

Yan-Yan in the enclosure of the Berlin Zoo

Naturally, this meeting with a living WWF symbol became one of my greatest impressions received in the memorable summer of 1996, when fate gave me the opportunity to visit 38 zoos in Europe in 3.5 months.

But theoretically, such a meeting could have happened much earlier, when the giant panda’s place of residence was the Moscow Zoo. A night on a train is the distance from Novgorod to Moscow. However, this is if you decide for yourself. And when your parents decide for you, distributing the household budget for much more prosaic items than a trip to the capital’s zoo, everything is not so simple. For the first time my dream of seeing a zoo in Moscow came true only at the age of 18, 6 years after I was there last time saw a bamboo bear. Alas…

Information about keeping giant pandas at the Moscow Zoo can be found in various publications, including books by the former director of the zoo, a tireless popularizer of his institution, Igor Petrovich Sosnovsky. Below I have taken the liberty of bringing together fragments from his books and articles, as well as from a review on the history of the mammal department (authors: E. Davydov, I. Alekseicheva, E. Lysogorskaya), published in a report on the work of the Moscow Zoo for 2005. According to these data, during its entire history, 5 (five) bamboo bears visited the zoo of the Russian capital.

The first of them, a male named Pin-Pin, was brought here in May 1957.

“According to Chinese zoologists,- wrote I.P. Sosnovsky, - between 1936 and 1956, only 14 bamboo bears were caught, most of which died during transportation. It is also known that several bamboo bears were taken from China in 1938 by the British and kept in the London Zoological Park. In the spring of 1955, Chinese specialists, participants in a complex expedition to western part province of Sichuan, captured three young bamboo bears in Bao Xin County, which were taken to Beijing Zoo. One of them was donated by Chinese comrades to the working people of Moscow in May 1957 and was sent to the Moscow Zoo for maintenance.”.

Pin-Pin on the Island of Animals

I would like to note on my own that this was an event of not only, let’s say, zoological, but also political importance: in the summer of the same year, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was loudly held in Moscow, and the panda, among other symbols, should have symbolized the friendship between the Russian and the Chinese , "brothers forever." Pin-Ping was settled on the Island of Animals. But the first Soviet panda did not live here for long - “only two years” (Davydov et al.). The most probable cause- lack of knowledge on caring for such a specialized animal. And perhaps the age of the beast.

Why "possibly"? It is at this point, almost barely starting the story, that I must insert the first comment. Sosnovsky in the third issue of the collection of articles “Moscow Zoo” (1961) and the team of authors more than 40 years later disagree in assessing the age of Pin-Ping. Sosnovsky, as you could read above, claims that one of the three young bears was brought to Moscow, and Davydov, Alekseicheva and Lysogorskaya write something else: “In May 1957, a middle-aged bamboo bear named Pin-Pin was brought in.”.

Understand it as you wish, I still have no other sources of information. On the one hand, none of the later authors worked at the zoo under Pin-Ping, and Igor Petrovich still, hot on the heels, described what he himself was a living witness.

Here is another very important quote from his article “Giant Panda”:

“In 1956-1958, the management of the Beijing Zoo carried out several expeditions for bamboo bears, as a result of which 5 more specimens were captured. One of them was acquired by the Austrian entrepreneur Demmer in 1958. At his request, the animal was kept for 10 days in the Moscow Zoo, from where it was sent to the Frankfurt Zoo (on Main). In September 1958, this specimen arrived at the London Zoological Park.".

I personally have not seen any mention of this “copy” anywhere else, including from Sosnovsky himself (although I cannot claim completeness of information; it is clear that I have not read everything written on this issue). Nevertheless, the moment is important and bright: even if it was 10 days, but in 1958, two giant pandas lived at the same time in the Moscow Zoo. And only then, after the death of Pin-Pin, a third beast appeared, which I.P. Sosnovsky and everyone after him is called the second:

“By the beginning of 1959, there were 7 bamboo bears in zoological parks around the world, 5 of them in Beijing and one each in Moscow and London. In August 1959, the second bamboo bear arrived at the Moscow Zoo.".

Note that the director of the zoo does not indicate in his article that Pin-Ping did not exist by this time. And the reader has the right to think that there are now two black and white bears. By the way, maybe this was the case, since, firstly, the trio of later authors do not write exactly what time Pin-Ping, who lived “only two years,” reached. Until May - month after month? Or until March? Or until October? Very vague. Moreover (and this is secondly), here is what Sosnovsky writes further:

“The bamboo bear Pin-Ping, kept in the Moscow Zoo, weighed 20 kilograms in 1955 (that is, when he was caught. - A.K.), in the spring of 1960 his weight reached 185 kilograms".

It turns out that Pin-Pin lived at least until the spring of 1960, and was here at the same time as An-An. That is, he lived for at least three years. It is unlikely that Igor Petrovich, who at the time of publication of the article was 45 years old, was too early for sclerosis, made a mistake. However, this point – at least for myself – remains to be clarified. In the zoo and in the Zoo Museum of Moscow State University, in the exhibition of which are stuffed two giant pandas (where could they get here, except from the zoo?).

Okay, let's continue, sir.

“By nature, this is a very calm, affectionate animal,- writes Sosnovsky. - Does not show any aggression towards humans. Pin-Pin is active and curious, but after eating he rests and sleeps for a long time. When irritated or hungry, it makes quiet sounds somewhat reminiscent of the bleating of a sheep. IN warm weather the animal willingly bathes, immersing its entire body in the water. Does not tolerate intense heat and sunshine...

From May to October, our Bamboo Bear is kept in a large open pen with natural soil and water, with a cool shelter from the sun. During hot weather, the bear often goes into it to for a long time. From October to May the animal is in indoors, which maintains an average temperature of 12-16 degrees.

Pin Pin's daily diet is 2 kilograms of rice or oatmeal, boiled in milk, 100 grams of sugar, 400 grams of fruit juices, about 500 bamboo shoots and leaves and 2 eggs. He readily drinks fruit juices, sweet tea and eats grated carrots and birch and willow branches.
At the London Zoo, a bamboo bear eats bananas, oranges, apples, White bread, cottage cheese and chicken meat."

But let's return now to An-An, depicted on a postage stamp issued in 1964 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the zoo. He lived until 1972. That's what I.P. Sosnovsky wrote about him in the book “Pets of the Moscow Zoo” (1974):

“At first there were great difficulties with feeding. The bear did not want to eat anything except his usual food - bamboo. Where can I get it, and even in fresh? I had to fly to Sukhumi, Batumi, harvest bamboo there and send it by plane to Moscow. We also contacted botanical gardens, but all this was labor-intensive and expensive. We decided to gradually accustom the new resident to Russian dishes, to Russian cuisine. The menu included porridge, fruits, vegetables, sweet tea, and instead of bamboo, birch, willow and linden brooms. It’s okay, I’m used to it. He grew normally, developed well and forgot his beloved bamboo. Its weight reached more than 150 kilograms, and its body length was about 1.5 meters...

... Snacking on his favorite brooms or branches with fresh leaves, he always sits down, leaning his back against the tree trunk. He deftly holds thin branches and twigs with the fingers of his front paws and quickly eats the leaves from them with sharp incisor teeth. The mobility of his fingers is such that he can hold a stylus in his paw

... By nature, he was very calm, good-natured, gave the opportunity to stroke himself, scratch him, and never made any attempts to angrily reject the affection. True, if he got bored, he could grab it with his paw, and his claws are large and sharp”...

An-An in the enclosure near the Bamboo House

An-An, apparently, also lived first on the Island of Beasts. But in 1962, a special small building with two enclosures, the Bamboo House, was built especially for him on the Old Territory. He lived there for 10 years. After his death, other animals were kept there, and in the late 70s this complex was converted to keep spectacled bears.

In the late 1960s, the legendary epic took place with the matchmaking of An-An and the London female Chi-Chi. Word by I.P. Sosnovsky:

“In 1966, the Zoological Society of London approached us with a proposal to unite the female Chi-Chi, which belonged to it and lived in the London Zoo, with our An-An. We agreed. Considering the enormous scientific value of these rare animals, the British and Soviet sides entered into an agreement on state level about an experiment to connect a Moscow “bachelor” with a London “bride”.

In March 1966, Chi-Chi flew to Moscow on a passenger plane, on board which in capital letters it was written: “Special flight. Panda". About 200 people gathered for the meeting at Sheremetyevo International Airport. There were our and foreign correspondents, representatives of the British Embassy, ​​employees of the USSR Ministry of Culture, workers from the zoo, television, and radio. One of the journalists jokingly said: “I often visit this port, but I have never met a single king or prime minister like this”...

Chi-Chi before leaving London for Moscow (photo from I.P. Sosnovsky’s book “Behind the Scenes of the Zoo”, 1989)

…After the quarantine, a viewing party took place. Experts determined that both “betrothed” are in perfect health. After this, the animals were kept alone for several days, but were given the opportunity to get to know each other through the bars. It seemed that the animals treated each other with good intentions. We decided to connect. The male was the first to be released into the spacious enclosure. He was noticeably worried, circling around the enclosure, looking into all corners, making slightly squealing sounds and moving his nose vigorously. He was looking for his “betrothed” by the smell. When he calmed down, they opened the door from the female’s room. She didn’t come out right away, she looked around for a long time, sniffed, then crawled out through open door and carefully stepped onto the ground. For several minutes Chi-Chi and An-An kept their distance from each other, then they approached and again separated quite calmly. The employees of the Moscow and London Zoos who were present were rejoicing: our charges had become friends and got used to each other! And suddenly, quite suddenly, the male pounced on the female, grabbing her by the teeth with his teeth. back leg. And a fierce battle began with desperate screams and roars of animals. We had security measures in place in advance in case the “marriage date” went wrong. The fire hoses instantly started working, blank shots were heard from hunting rifles, whistles and screams arose, but the animals went into a frenzy. The fight continued. To separate them, an entire fire brigade rushed into the enclosure. They surrounded the fighters and attacked them with plywood shields and sharp pikes, while simultaneously pouring jets of water on them. All this cooled An-An's ardor, and he retreated. They managed to drive him into an isolated cage.

Several days passed, the animals were kept alone, and then they tried to unite them again. When re-released into the common enclosure, the pandas switched roles. Now, seizing the moment, the female attacked the male: she hit him with her paws, grabbed him with her teeth...

Chi-Chi in the enclosure of the Moscow Zoo (photo from Yunost magazine, 1966)

...Chi-Chi lived in our zoo for more than six months, but they never became friends with An-An. No wedding took place. Apparently, they didn’t get along in character... It was a pity for us to part with Chi-Chi, and it was a pity that the experiment failed.”.

Today, from the height of knowledge of modern zoo science, one can only smile condescendingly at these lines. After all, the “wedding” of pandas could not take place. Pandas are not dogs; their mating will not work as a result of placing them in the same cage. Today, scientists know that the bamboo bear is capable of conceiving (and accepting a male) only once a year for a short period of 24 to 48 hours. That's all! If they don’t get together at the appointed moment, she’ll have to wait another year. But how could zoo workers know this at that time? There were no technologies to determine a female’s readiness to conceive and her pregnancy by urine analysis.

But let's not smile. Who knows what successes zoo biology will achieve in another 30 years, what new knowledge will replace today's knowledge? Perhaps any animal for the zoo can be cloned, and no one will have to be removed from nature. Perhaps animals and birds that were exterminated and extinct a long time ago will appear in zoos, and Jurassic or Pleistocene parks will become as much a reality as the Internet...

However, in the 1960s no one thought about this. They decided that Chi-Chi was simply uncomfortable in Moscow, and the meeting on the Thames would be more successful:

“In 1968, our An-An flew to London on a return visit,” writes I.P. Sosnovsky, - and we hoped that the dates would be more successful at the bride's residence. However, despite the excellent conditions created for pandas at the London Zoo, this meeting was unsuccessful. They again did not want to make friends"…

CM. Kudryavtsev accompanies An-An to the airport

Together with the director of the Moscow Zoo, zoo zoologist Stanislav Mikhailovich Kudryavtsev flew to London, and he lived there during all those months that An-An was visiting the London Zoo, regularly reporting to Moscow about the progress of the project. And if that trip ended in nothing for An-An, his accompanying person found many friends in Great Britain. Colleagues there highly appreciated the Muscovite’s knowledge and interest. Kudryavtsev returned home as a member of the London Zoological Society.

CM. Kudryavtsev (left) and An-An at the London Zoo

British “Press, television and radio informed Londoners almost daily of what was happening between the pandas. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of amateur photographers captured this couple on the films of their cameras, artists made sketches, and stores sold toy bamboo bears and porcelain figurines depicting them. That’s what a celebrity our An-An was.”, - this is how Igor Petrovich Sosnovsky concludes his story.

A new opportunity to see live pandas presented itself to Muscovites and guests of the Russian capital only 29 years after the death of An-An - in 2001, during the Beijing Culture Days in Moscow.

Bamboo bear Ben-Ben. Moscow, end of June 2001

The following are quotes from the annual report of the Moscow Zoo:
“Negotiations with the Chinese side began six months before this event. An agreement was concluded, signed by representatives of the two municipalities. It stipulated the conditions of transportation, accommodation, insurance, feeding, veterinary care for animals and accommodation of accompanying specialists from the PRC. According to the agreement, two pandas from the Beijing Zoo flew to Moscow for two months. The “Cats of the Tropics” pavilion was chosen to house them..

A group of Chinese specialists arrived in advance, inspected the premises, expressed wishes and comments, and agreed to exhibit giant pandas. While waiting for valuable exhibits, we experienced many exciting, troublesome, and often unpleasant moments: transplanting jaguars from the pavilion, installing air conditioners in cages, re-equipping and strengthening enclosures... And the terrible day when the pandas arrived was worth gray hair more than one zoo employee. Expected at 7 a.m., due to problems at customs, the bamboo bears arrived only at 9 p.m. The exhausted employees - both those waiting at the zoo and those who met us at the airport - were scary to look at. Mostly, of course, we were worried about the animals, and when the pandas were put into spacious, comfortable cages and fed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.”…

Bamboo bear Wen-Wen. Moscow, end of June 2001

“The Moscow Zoo entered into a special agreement to receive fresh bamboo from Adler. Bamboo was delivered twice a week by plane at the rate of 35 kg per animal.".

Dinner Wen-Wen, rear view

The “guest performers” from Beijing were individuals of different sexes and were kept in two separate enclosures. Both animals were born at the Beijing Zoo - a 9-year-old female, Wen-Wen, named after the director of the zoo, Comrade Wen, and a male named Ben-Ben, which means Bull: he was born in the year of the Ox and celebrated his 4th birthday on July 24 in Moscow.

Wen-Wen's measured life at the Moscow Zoo: he'll eat, take a walk, and eat again...

At the end of June, after a two-week adaptation period, the bamboo bears were presented to the public. Strange and rare animals caused a large influx of people to the zoo, which in the summer already suffers without the attention of visitors. The “panda boom” lasted just over a month, and then the animals were safely returned to the Beijing Zoo.

Poster from 1957 (color from the black and white original inspired by the imagination of the author of the post)

In addition to giant pandas, the Moscow Zoo's collection also included small pandas. They were brought here from China exactly in the same May 1957, when Pin-Ping arrived, as a gift from the mayor of Beijing, Comrade Pyn Zhen (and along with the pandas, also two gigantic salamanders, two pangolins and a cobra). Small pandas were demonstrated in the Fur Row on New territory- where the corrals for riding horses are now. I can’t say how long they lived here - what I don’t know, I don’t know. However, for several years now the Moscow Zoo has been waiting for the opportunity to obtain small pandas as part of the EEP - European Breeding Program rare species. Cages and a walk on the Island of Animals have long been prepared for them - that same empty sector with a house between Kamchatka and Himalayan bears, which many people probably paid attention to. Let's hope that sooner or later they will appear here.

In the 90s, red pandas were imported in two Russian zoo- Leningrad and Novosibirsk. Moreover, in the city on the Neva, a couple of pandas did not live even a year, apparently dying from infection and not even being included in the annual list of animals from the collections of EARAZA zoos (it is compiled as of January 1). And of the pair that arrived in Novosibirsk in 1992, the female named Daughter (she is in this photo) lived until 2001, that is, 10 years. The male died in '95 or '96. In 1999, a male born at the Dresden Zoo was brought to Daughter, but he outlived her by only 3 years.

I saw Daughter in 1998. She spent almost all daylight hours in her house, so during the four hot days spent at the Novosibirsk Zoo, I had practically no chance to photograph her. But the park staff took pity on me: my daughter couldn’t resist the squeak of a specially brought day-old chick and crawled out of the hiding place overtime. However, while I was tinkering with my old Zenit, she quickly disappeared back, so I only managed to take two shots, none of which could be called successful...

Little panda Daughter (Novosibirsk Zoo, 1998)

P.S. A lot of time has passed since I wrote this post. Red pandas have been living between Kamchatka and Himalayan bears on the “Island of Animals” at the Moscow Zoo for two years now. And those closest to European Russia representatives of this species can be found in the zoos of Warsaw and Helsinki. (23/03/2011)

Sources of information and some illustrations: