A pair of young red pandas gifted by Shanghai Zoo arrived in Taipei early on Saturday, marking the first cross-strait animal exchange in 12 years and a concrete outcome of a memorandum signed at the 2024 Shanghai-Taipei City Forum.
The male red panda, aged three, and the female, aged two, are in good health after the long journey. The male showed curiosity, exploring and eating soon after entering his quarantine room, while the female was more cautious and shy.
The pandas will undergo a one-month quarantine before being moved to the temperate animal zone, where they will join the zoo's existing red panda family. They are expected to meet the public in July. The pandas have not yet been named, with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an suggesting the possibility of a public vote to decide their names.
The exchange was initiated by Chiang during the 2023 Shanghai-Taipei City Forum, leading to the signing of a memorandum on red panda species exchange and conservation cooperation at the December 2024 forum. Under the memorandum, Shanghai gifted two red pandas to Taipei. In return, Taipei will send white-handed gibbons to Shanghai instead of the originally planned African penguins, after Shanghai adjusted its requirements.
Conservation experts said the exchange will help introduce new bloodlines to maintain a healthy population, improve age structure and enhance genetic diversity at Taipei Zoo, while providing a model for cross-strait cooperation on the protection of endangered species.
