Zoo Negara bids farewell to panda cubs Yi Yi, Sheng Yi

Yi Yi and Sheng Yi are the offspring of giant panda ‘ambassadors’ Xing Xing and Liang Liang, which were loaned to the Malaysian government in 2014.

KUALA LUMPUR: Zoo Negara has bid farewell to Yi Yi and Sheng Yi, the panda cubs who were born in Malaysia as part of an international giant panda conservation agreement between Malaysia and China.

Yi Yi was born in 2018, and Sheng Yi three years later. Their return to China was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Their parents – giant panda “diplomats” Xing Xing and Liang Liang – had recently celebrated their 17th birthday at the Giant Panda Conservation Centre at Zoo Negara.

The farewell ceremony for Yi Yi and Sheng Yi was attended by deputy natural resources, environment and climate change minister Huang Tiong Sii, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing and Malaysian Zoological Society president Zaharin Arif at Zoo Negara here.

Huang signed off on a farewell plaque, thanking the cubs for “being all the way in Malaysia”, while Ouyang wished the pandas a safe journey back to China.

The deputy minister expressed hope that the pandas could “promote understanding and close cooperation between the two countries”.

Xing Xing and Liang Liang were loaned to the Malaysian government in 2014. The 10-year loan marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.

The first cub from the pair, Nuan Nuan, was sent back to China in 2017 when it turned two. - FMT