A Finland zoo will be returning two giant pandas, who were on loan, back to China. While the zoo was supposed to keep the pandas for eight more years, they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain, partly due to a decline in visitors.
The Ähtäri Zoo, located in central Finland, approximately 205 miles north of Helsinki, the country’s capital, announced on Facebook earlier this week that the two pandas in their care, a male named ‘Pyry’ meaning ‘snowfall’ in Finnish and ‘Lumi’, meaning ‘snow’, will be returning home to China later this year.
The pandas were ‘gifted’ to Finland in 2017 to mark the country’s 100 years of independence and were supposed to stay at the facility until 2033.
The panda deal had been finalized in the spring of 2017 when Xi Jinping, the President of China, visited Finland for talks with the Nordic nation’s then-President Sauli Niinisto. The animals eventually arrived in early 2018.
Since then, however, the zoo has experienced several challenges, including a sharp decline in visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia have also impacted the number of tourists visiting the area, as has the recent increase in interest rates and inflation.
The Ähtäri Zoo, known for housing northern European animals such as wolverines, bears, and lynxes, subsequently built a special annex for the pandas – one that costed more than 8 million euros (approximately $9 million USD), in hopes of attracting more visitors to the facility, which is located in a remote nature reserve.
Caring for Pyry and Lumi costs the facility more than 1.5 million euros every year, not including a preservation fee they must also pay to China. The zoo also had to hire a special caretaker to stay with the pandas at all times.
Not only that but the bamboo that the giant bears ate also came at a premium price as they were imported from the Netherlands.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Finland, Beijing had tried to help the zoo with its financial difficulties by urging local Chinese companies to donate to the facility. Declining tourist numbers, however, combined with recent economic changes, have proved to be too much for the small zoo.
The return of the animals is ultimately a business decision by the zoo, and as such, should not impact relations between Finland and China.
The two giant pandas will go into quarantine for one month in late October, before returning to China.
Finland, with a population of 5.6 million, was one of the first Western countries to establish a relationship with China, having done so in 1950. As a sign of goodwill, China subsequently presented the Nordic nation with the giant pandas.
