China recently recalled all panda bears from U.S. zoos, following years of rising tensions between the two nations. The panda bear is an iconic symbol of China and Chinese culture.
Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich observes that this is devastating to all Americans who find panda bears cute, cuddly and adorable. The only upside, Gingrich concedes, is that these adorable bears are at least returning to their native habitat, where their favorite food — bamboo — grows in abundance.
So, the Chinese Communists have set aside a pretty good amount of land around Chengdu in the area where this particular kind of bamboo grows. And one of the great challenges when pandas started to go around the world [is they are] always on loan, [the] Chinese never give them away. They loan them under very strict rules, and if the pandas end up having a baby, the baby belongs technically to China and has to ultimately be returned to China.
And everywhere they go — I’ve seen them, for example, in the San Diego Zoo, the Atlanta Zoo, the National Zoo — you always have this huge complicated program to make sure you can get enough bamboo. And so in almost every case, they have a local farmer who is raising an amazing amount of bamboo, because these bears can sit and eat a lot of bamboo. They’re not getting very much nutrition out of each bite, but they’re taking a lot of bites.
So, it’s with regret that they’re going back home. On the other hand, it is going back home, and I hope maybe later on — when things stall out and we get to a better relationship — that they may once again loan the National Zoo some pandas. And I promise you, if you ever get a chance to go and see a giant panda, you ought to do it. You’ll find yourself smiling, you’ll wonder why you liked this thing so much. But it is very cool — and there’s nothing quite like the giant pandas.
