Two giant pandas gifted to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park by Beijing made their debut appearance in front of the press on Monday.
An An and Ke Ke are both five years old. The public will be able to visit them from Sunday.
The city’s largest theme park has put its faith in pandas to boost revenue after it recorded a HK$71.6 million deficit in its latest fiscal year despite the highest number of visitors in five years. It agreed a HK$2 billion bailout from taxpayers in 2021, to be injected over four years.
The park also houses Hong Kong’s only panda enclosure, home to six pandas.
Ying Ying and Lok Lok gave birth to panda twins in August, whose names will be decided by a naming competition.
Opened in 1977, Ocean Park is Hong Kong’s largest theme park. It also conducts animal conservation research and boasts around two dozen animal attractions including an alligator marsh, aquariums and an Arctic fox den.
“The two pairs of giant pandas given by the Central Government in the past have accompanied generations of Hong Kong people, which is [a] collective memory of all,” Chief Executive John Lee said in October. “The new pair of giant pandas will become close ‘family members’ of Hong Kong people, bringing us laughter and joy.”
Last March, animal welfare NGO has urged China not to use animals such as pandas as political gifts. It came after a 24-year-old male giant panda named Le Le died at Memphis Zoo in the US.
Jason Baker, the Asia vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said pandas were not objects to be gifted for diplomatic purposes. “They are intelligent and social animals that form close bonds with their families and friends.”
Another An An, and a female called Jia Jia, were donated by the Chinese government to Hong Kong in 1999 to mark the second anniversary of the Handover. Jia Jia died in 2016, and An An in 2022.
In the wild, giant pandas can live between 14 to 20 years, whilst those in captivity can reach 30, according to the Word Wide Fund for Nature.
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