giant panda Yuan Meng will leave the zoo on Tuesday heading to China

The giant panda Yuan Meng, the first baby of the species born in France in 2017, will leave the Beauval zoo in Saint-Aignan (Loir-et-Cher) on Tuesday July 25 at 9 a.m. to reach China, reports France Bleu Touraine on Monday. This departure has been planned for a long time, but had been postponed due to the health crisis. According to the Beauval zoo, it is a “necessity for the good of the species and genetic diversity“.”Yuan Meng is indeed destined to reproduce in the future. He therefore joined the Chengdu base, a breeding and breeding center for giant pandas.“, adds the zoo on its website. A last breakfast of giant panda bamboo shoots was organized Monday morning, in the presence of the Chinese ambassador to France, in front of a hundred visitors.

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The animal will travel by plane in a crate”adapted“, specifies the director of the zoo Rodolphe Delord to France Bleu Touraine. “For a few days now, we have gotten him used to going in and out. This crate will be loaded into an air-conditioned truck escorted by the national gendarmerie, to Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport“, further specifies the director.

The panda will then take a China Airlines plane to reach the center of Chengdu directly after twelve hours of flight. He will be accompanied by his caretaker and his veterinarian from the Beauval zoo. For this trip, 90 kilograms of bamboo shoots have been provided. The director of the zoo will come to visit him next November and has offered Brigitte Macron, the panda’s godmother, to join him.