Bei Bei is Turning Four!
This note about Bei Bei's departure is a bit different than the two previous departures. With Tai Shan and Bao Bao, we were notified further in advance and described how the animal would be trained to feel comfortable in a travel crate, etc. This time, they basically say that all the plans and all the logistics have already been worked out, and he'll be shipping out in the coming months. I wonder if the public would have been reminded sooner if the sudden departure of all three SD bears hadn't happened. Trump has just delayed more massive sanctions from September to December, allegedly to make for robust Christmas sales here. With the contract for Mei and Tian to expire in December 2020, it will be very interesting to see if the tariff battle continues to (coincidentally??) mirror panda agreements.