Cameras capturing two rare giant pandas at a UK zoo have been left heartbroken. Yang Guang and Tian Tian, Britain’s only pandas, will leave Edinburgh Zoo on a long-haul flight to China this morning under the watchful eye of vets from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).
They have spent the last 20 years living in the UK, during which time they brought joy to tourists visiting them in person and watching them on camera via the zoo’s dedicated “panda cameras”. As the animals prepare to spend between 12 and 13 hours in the air today en route to Beijing, fans of the two bears have told how they will be deeply missed.
Both keepers and the general public alike have said they developed a bond with the animals and will be sad to watch them return to China, where they will settle into a new panda centre in their native country. The cameras capturing their enclosures have left people feeling sad this morning, with their cages lying empty and unattended ahead of their overseas flight.
Edinburgh Zoo has two dedicated panda cameras, one monitoring male Yang Guang and another female Tian Tian. Each “panda cam” has caught the bears as they sleep, eat, and play with one another, but they now show still, empty enclosures, with barely a trace they lived there at all.
Britons have voiced their sadness online, with several people posting goodbye posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. One user wrote: “Awww gonna miss these two, and panda cam made me happy watching them.”
MissJCannon added: “Was a big fan of the panda cams. Safe home Yang Guang and Tian Tian.” Lisa Robshaw, the head of marketing for the RZSS, said she was sad for several reasons.
She joked: “Going to miss that web traffic for sure. Almost as much as the pandas.” Emma P was similarly sad and asked whether any other pandas would take up residence in Yang Guang and Tian Tian’s enclosure.
Reacting to the news that the pandas were leaving for China, she wrote: “Ahh no!!!!! My daughter is the biggest Panda lover. Her dream job is to be a panda nannie. Will you have any other giant pandas to stay?”
Edinburgh Zoo has confirmed it does not plan to introduce any more pandas and will instead convert their enclosure for another species.
Replying to her tweet on December 2, a zoo spokesperson wrote: “No, once the pandas leave, we will convert their enclosure to welcome a new species with a crucial factor being how we can support conservation in the wild.”
