Chinese male panda Jiao Qing celebrates 9th birthday at zoo
China currently has pandas on loan to 26 zoos in 18 countries.
BERLIN (Reuters) - What is a birthday without a cake? And since a 110 kilogram panda doesn’t need to watch his weight, panda Jiao Qing could indulge as he celebrated his 9th birthday in Berlin’s Zoo on Monday.
But the sickly-looking birthday cake was actually made of sweet potatoes and red beetroot. But in one way his birthday didn’t differ from most 9-year old’s, it involved lots of ice-treats.
"Lovely" as his name is roughly translated, was left alone to enjoy his treat by his partner Meng Meng, whose 6th birthday was last week.
Both pandas are still very young in panda-years, but will hopefully soon have other reasons to celebrate - the zoo has recently artificially inseminated Meng Meng and are hoping they will soon be able to announce she is pregnant.
It’s all part of a captive breeding program to help save the species from extinction. Though their conservation status is no longer "endangered", it improved to "vulnerable" in 2016, there are still only 500-1,000 adult pandas left in the wild, in six isolated mountain ranges in south-central China.
China currently has pandas on loan to 26 zoos in 18 countries.
