[ti:Panda in Mexico Is Last Survivor in Latin America]
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2022-11-24]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]A panda housed at a Mexican zoo is the only one left in all of Latin America.
[00:07.78]Xin Xin was born in Mexico. 
[00:11.41]She is the remaining member of a line of pandas China gifted to foreign nations during the 1970s and 1980s.
[00:22.99]But she is nearing the end of her life and it is not clear whether Mexico will pay for getting another one.
[00:31.86]Xin Xin lives at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. 
[00:38.74]The zoo is only one of two worldwide that houses pandas without the direct supervision of the Chinese government. 
[00:48.18]The animals are native to China.
[00:51.60]Xin Xin is a second-generation Mexican-born panda, with a lineage linked to Pe Pe and Ying Ying, who arrived at the zoo in 1975.
[01:04.91]Those pandas were given to Mexico as part of a Chinese program known as "panda diplomacy."
[01:14.11]The program, which began in the late 1950s, involved China giving pandas as gifts to countries around the world.
[01:24.14]In 1984, China ended its panda gifting policy.
[01:30.72]It then began signing loan agreements with zoo operators around the world. 
[01:36.78]Since 1985, the loan program has required zoos to return any baby pandas, called cubs, to China.
[01:48.59]China now loans giant pandas for between 10 and 15 years at a cost of $1 million per year.
[01:58.16]The agreements state that the money earned is supposed to be used to support panda conservation efforts in China.
[02:08.72]Mexico became one of only a few countries permitted to keep new cubs born at Chapultepec Zoo.
[02:18.65]Another female panda at the zoo, named Shuan Shuan, died in July at the age of 35.
[02:27.65]After her death, Mexican officials began talks with China's ambassador about getting another panda.
[02:36.28]But zoo officials say it is unlikely the current administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will agree to China's yearly payment requirement. 
[02:51.10]"Another arrangement will definitely have to be found," said Fernando Gual, the director of Mexico City Zoos and Wildlife Conservation.
[03:03.64]He added that any agreement "will depend a lot on the will and necessities of both countries."
[03:11.54]"It's impossible not to have an attachment to these animals," Gual said. 
[03:18.12]"We saw most of them being born here." 
[03:21.76]Ying Ying gave birth to a daughter named Tohui at Chapultepec Zoo in 1981.
[03:29.47]She was the second panda ever born outside China and lived to age 12.
[03:36.37]Eight pandas have been born in Mexico, with five surviving to adulthood.
[03:42.25]The life expectancy of a giant panda in the wild is about 15 years.
[03:49.93]In captivity, they have lived to be as old as 38. 
[03:54.48]Experts say many years of conservation efforts in the wild and the study of the animals in captivity saved them from disappearing, or going extinct. 
[04:07.95]Those efforts increased the panda population from fewer than 1,000 at one time to more than 1,800 today in the wild and in captivity.
[04:22.82]Mexico's success rate makes it one of only two zoos to run a panda program outside the control of the Chinese government, the Congressional Research Service reports. 
[04:37.09]The other is in Taiwan, which received two pandas in 2008 in exchange for a pair of endangered sika deer.
[04:47.41]For now, Xin Xin remains a star at Chapultepec Zoo. 
[04:54.33]The Associated Press reported that on a recent day, Juan Vicente Araya and his family visited the zoo from Costa Rica and were excited to see Xin Xin.
[05:08.00]Araya said the zoo visit was the first thing his family did in Mexico. 
[05:15.11]"In Latin America we don't have a lot of opportunities to see a panda," he said.
[05:22.05]"The truth is it was worth it for us to come from Costa Rica. We're very excited to meet her."
[05:30.01]I'm Bryan Lynn.