At the end of last year two of the most recognisable animals on Earth left these shores for a journey to the other side of the world that would bring to an end more than 80 years of a UK zoo being home to a giant panda.
The remarkable bear-sized bamboo-eating animals first captured the hearts of the British public when four of the black-and-white Chinese animals arrived in London in 1938.
The furry oddities provided a much-needed morale boost for a war-fearing nation and panda cub Ming was even introduced to a then young Princess Elizabeth.
London would play host to more pandas down the decades, with Chi Chi becoming the capital’s most famous resident in the 1960s when she became the inspiration for Sir Peter Scott’s design for the logo of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
To feed Chi Chi the zoo enlisted the help of a Cornish scout troop and a man that went by the name ‘the captain’ who would grow and cut bamboo before packing it up and putting it on a train to Paddington two times a week.
Chi Chi died in 1972, having enjoyed a brief romance with a panda called An An from Moscow zoo which did not prove fruitful in terms of cubs. Her body was later stuffed and she can today be seen on display in London’s Natural History Museum.
Most recently the UK’s only giant pandas lived in Edinburgh zoo where they were officially on loan from China. Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived in 2011 and were meant to only be at the facility for 10 years, but the Covid crisis allowed the zoo to keep them a little longer until December last year.
Under a term dubbed ‘Panda Diplomacy’ the Chinese government gifts the rare animals, which are only found in the wild in China, to other nations on loan for a period of time as a sign of diplomatic goodwill.
Speaking last year when the two pandas set off on their 13-hour journey to China, Darren McGarry, head of living collections at Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), told the BBC: “I’ve always known they were leaving and we try not to get attached, but we have to care for them so we are emotionally attached.
“I’m excited because I will go back for a follow up next year to make sure they’re ok. I’m sure they will be. They’re China’s national treasure.”
With diplomatic relations between Britain and China strained in recent years over the war in Ukraine and a number of spying scandals, it is not clear when Giant Pandas will return to these shores.