It was designed for Primates , not Pandas. When the Pandas were offered to the Zoo, a special enclosure wasn't built and they were placed in one of the Sobell enclosures which was landscaped a bit for them.
At some stage in the late 1980's the male 'Bao Bao' from Berlin Zoo visited briefly to try and mate him with London's female but nothing came of it. I thought the male(ChiaChia?) of London's pair died first and BaoBao was sent as a final attempt to mate with the female.
It is Chichi, the previous female who is in the museum. London Zoo also exhibited several other Giant Pandas on different occassions before ChiChi, during the 1930's/40's period. Some of these also spent time at Whipsnade Zoo during the War years. There was LienHo(male) Ming(female?) and at least three others too (Happy, Grumpy and ?)
Five giant pandas arrived at London Zoo on Christmas Eve, 1938.
They were originally called ‘Baby’, Grumpy’, ‘Dopey’, ‘Happy’ and 'Grandma’.
‘Grandma’ died shortly afterwards on 9th January 1939. ‘Happy’ was sent round various European zoos and eventually ended up in St. Louis, USA, where he died on 10th March 1946.
The ZSL retained ‘Baby’, ‘Grumpy’ and ‘Dopey’ renaming them ‘Ming’, ‘Tang’ and ‘Sung’ respectively, so that they had oriental names.
‘Sung’ died on 18th December 1939, ‘Tang’ died on 23rd April 1940 and the famous ‘Ming’ died on 26th December 1944.
‘Lien-Ho’ was a later animal, who arrived at the zoo on 11th May 1946 and died 22nd February 1950.
The famous ‘Chi-Chi’ arrived 5th September 1958 and died 22 July 1972’
Thanks for posting the proper details of those earlier Pandas.
Do you have the dates of when BaoBao from Berlin visited London and how that visit tied in with London's own pair- I saw him but can't remember which year it was.
God, I was awful in my early days, sorry about that!
But this enclosure looks a lot worse with a full sized Panda in it, and the wire makes for grim viewing. I believe Bao-Bao was in London between 91-94 in an attempt to mate with the Panda acquired after Chia-Chia was sent to Mexico - her name was Ming-Ming and was the worlds oldest Panda when she died in 2011 in a Cantonese Wildlife Park. Bao-Bao bit Ming-Mings ear off. Considering that there were three other male Panda's in Europe at the time (one in Paris, two in Madrid including the famous Chu-Lin) I'm surprised that Bao-Bao was the only animal send to London, and other potential mates were not tried.
Does anybody know why the Zoo did not build a new enclosure for Chia-Chia and Ching Ching? Because this one is much worse than the one the previous Panda Chi-Chi was kept in https://www.flickr.com/photos/duke_of_milan/5464059799/
God, I was awful in my early days, sorry about that!
But this enclosure looks a lot worse with a full sized Panda in it, and the wire makes for grim viewing. I believe Bao-Bao was in London between 91-94 in an attempt to mate with the Panda acquired after Chia-Chia was sent to Mexico - her name was Ming-Ming and was the worlds oldest Panda when she died in 2011 in a Cantonese Wildlife Park. Bao-Bao bit Ming-Mings ear off. Considering that there were three other male Panda's in Europe at the time (one in Paris, two in Madrid including the famous Chu-Lin) I'm surprised that Bao-Bao was the only animal send to London, and other potential mates were not tried.
Does anybody know why the Zoo did not build a new enclosure for Chia-Chia and Ching Ching? Because this one is much worse than the one the previous Panda Chi-Chi was kept in https://www.flickr.com/photos/duke_of_milan/5464059799/
I think this was at a time when all of ZSL's financial problems were finally catching up with it-though no one would publically admit to it. Various plans were mooted for the pandas-one being turning the Mappins into a "Szechuan Experience" once they realised the Polar bears would never return. Bear Mountain was an interpretation of this idea.
Ultimately, nothing materialised and the collection was purged to rescue the place. Whether ZSL's reputation, and that of London's, has ever truly recovered is a matter still open to debate to those of us with long memories.
I believe Bao-Bao was in London between 91-94 in an attempt to mate with the Panda acquired after Chia-Chia was sent to Mexico - her name was Ming-Ming and was the worlds oldest Panda when she died in 2011 in a Cantonese Wildlife Park.
I'm surprised that Bao-Bao was the only animal send to London, and other potential mates were not tried.
Does anybody know why the Zoo did not build a new enclosure for Chia-Chia and Ching Ching? Because this one is much worse than the one the previous Panda Chi-Chi was kept in [/quote]
Is this a record for th... such celebrated animals just about anywhere.
