By YUSHIN ADACHI/ Staff Writer
May 21, 2020 at 16:32 JST
Giant panda Tan Tan feasts on bamboo grass at Kobe Oji Zoo on May 19. (Yushin Adachi)
KOBE--Beloved female giant panda Tan Tan is preparing to return home to China after 20 years of putting smiles on the faces of visitors at Kobe Oji Zoo here.
The zoo announced on May 19 that the star attraction, its only panda, will be sent back to her homeland as her lease is ending.
The city borrowed the panda with the aim of cheering up residents who had experienced the devastating 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
“Tan Tan came to Kobe to cheer up people and has been particularly loved by children,” said Hiroyuki Ueyama, the head of the zoo, on May 19. “We really appreciate what she has done.”
Tan Tan, 24, joined the zoo in 2000 when she was a young panda under a Japan-China joint breeding research program, with a limited term of 10 years.
The loan period was extended to July 2020.
Her return date has yet to be decided as a flight to China has been unable to be booked due to the new coronavirus outbreak.
According to the Panda Protection Institute of Japan, the total number of giant pandas in Japan will be nine after Tan Tan returns home: three in Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens and six in Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture.
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