In June 2024, Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Australia and promised a new breeding pair of the rare bears (giant pandas) and urged both countries to put aside their differences.
- Li’s visit is the first by a Chinese premier to Australia in seven turbulent years for the trading partners, amid trade restrictions, tender bans and military flare-ups in international waters.
- Mr. Li visited Adelaide Zoo, which has been home to China-born giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009.
- He announced that the zoo would be loaned another two pandas after the pair are due to return to China in November.
- The pair are the only pandas in the Southern Hemisphere and failed to produce offspring in Australia.
Giant panda
- The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family. Only about 1,500 of these black-and-white bears survive in the wild.
- Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves. Pandas eat fast, they eat a lot, and they spend about 12 hours a day doing it.
- It is because they digest only about a fifth of what they eat. Pandas are shy; they don’t venture into areas where people live.
- Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in south central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
