Singapore is preparing to say goodbye to one of its animal favorites: little panda Le Le is heading back to China in December. But the bundle of joy still attracts countless visitors to the zoo in the Southeast Asian city state who want to watch him play and frolic with his mother Jia Jia again.
Le Le and his parents have a large and pleasantly air-conditioned enclosure in the River Wonders wildlife park, which is attached to the Singapore Zoo, with its own small waterfall and many trees that are ideal for climbing.
Le Le was born on August 14, 2021 and was the first baby panda ever born in Singapore. His parents Jia Jia and Kai Kai have been living in Singapore on loan from China since 2012, but had tried in vain to have children for years.
When it finally worked, even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong celebrated: “It is well known that it is difficult for pandas to reproduce in captivity,” he wrote at the time. “This is the seventh attempt for Kai Kai and Jia Jia. Their caretakers deserve great praise for this difficult and rare feat and for persevering despite previous failures.”
Le Le – Cantonese for “clever”
From then on, every step of development was followed meticulously: how the panda opened its eyes for the first time after 40 days, more than doubled its weight in a month and was christened Le Le after 138 days – Cantonese for “clever”. The next day, the cute panda child was presented to the public for the first time and has been melting the hearts of citizens and tourists ever since.
Visitors can marvel at it until November 20th, when Le Le will be quarantined before the big trip. It is common for panda loan babies to be brought to China when they are two years old. Then they weaned themselves from their mother. In China, Le Le will “fulfill the important mission of contributing to the conservation of giant pandas,” the zoo said in a statement.
Pandas are considered symbols of friendship between China and the countries to which they are loaned. There has been “panda diplomacy” for many years, but the animals always remain on loan – and so do their offspring.
