SINGAPORE: On December 13, at 8 a.m., Tie Boon Ping made his ninth consecutive visit to the Mandai wildlife park.
The 57-year-old operations director is in Singapore to see Le Le, the first panda cub to be born here, one more time.
Le Le will be taken off exhibit on December 14 and placed under quarantine for four and a half weeks. On January 16, 2024, he will board a plane to China.
Even though River Wonders, the place where Le Le lives with his parents Kai Kai and Jia Jia, opens at 10am, visitors began to arrive as early as 8am.
Tie told The Straits Times, “I am very excited to see Le Le today. I woke up at 4.30am before my alarm at 5.15am.”
“Even though I hate to see him go, I’m relieved that he’s returning to his parents’ hometown.”
Since January 2022, when Tie first laid eyes on the panda cub, she has been seeing him nearly every week.
“Seeing him is therapeutic, he’s so adorable,” Tie said, adding that in 2023 he saw giant pandas in seven different zoos and wildlife parks in places including South Korea and China.
Some guests went above and beyond to wear panda T-shirts in honour of the event.
Choo Jia Le, another devoted follower, likened Le Le’s exit to the death of a family member.
The early-30s public servant remarked, “It’s very sad and hard to say goodbye to him knowing that I can no longer see him in Singapore.”
Since January 2022, Choo has been going to Le Le once a week in addition to public holidays as a means to relax and enjoy herself after work.
She shared with ST that two of her fondest memories of Le Le were watching him crash down the exhibit’s slopes and hurrying to the den for dinner.
“During the pandemic’s darkest hours, he has been a beacon of hope… Ms. Choo, who intends to travel to China in 2024 to meet Le Le once more, declared, “This will definitely not be the last time I’ll see him.”
At around 9.40 am, the entrance leading from Le Le’s den to the exhibit opened at the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest. The media’s cameras clicked as the day’s star cautiously made his way into the display.
Le Le then proceeded to the middle of the exhibition, where a colourful banner with his likeness on a Singapore Airlines boarding card was on show.
After that, he settled into a cosy sitting position and began gorging on bamboo before going exploring once again.
In addition, there were boxes wrapped like luggage and ornamental paper aeroplanes. When Le Le opened the boxes, she discovered sweets resembling bamboo within.
A lengthy wait was already forming at 11 a.m. to exit the exhibit’s air-conditioned space and head outside.
Visitors to the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest, who were informed that they had just two to three minutes to take pictures of Le Le, dug out their cell phones and took distant selfies and pictures of the panda baby.
“Le Le has also been a wonderful ambassador for his species, helping to raise awareness regarding the threats that giant pandas face in the wild and allowing us to highlight the excellent work being undertaken in China to conserve his species,” said Mike Barclay, group chief executive of Mandai Wildlife Group, in a statement to the media.
He remembered the day, only five days before she gave birth on August 14, 2021, when Jia Jia’s veterinarian team announced that she was pregnant. He said that since then, 1.8 million tourists from Singapore and other countries had visited Le Le.
“We remain appreciative of the trust placed in us to take care of giant pandas and to be a part of China’s international network of panda conservation initiatives,” Barclay stated.
The Republic was commended for Le Le’s and the giant panda family’s affection and care by Qin Wen, the cultural counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Singapore.
Even though it is difficult to say goodbye to Le Le here, she predicted that by Chinese New Year in 2024, he will probably be back in the spotlight in China.
For panda keeper Trisha Tay, who saw Le Le’s birth and development into a lively two-year-old, his departure is heartbreaking. She is among the employees who will travel to China with Le Le in order to support his transfer.
The 40-year-old assistant curator at Mandai Wildlife Group remarked, “The past two years seem to have passed in the blink of an eye,” and she was proud to see Le Le reach all of his goals.
“I hope Le Le remembers all of us and the good times we had in Singapore. If he could understand me, I would tell him to grow up healthy and happy.”
On August 14, 2021, Le Le was born to giant pandas Jia Jia and Kai Kai. Since the two pandas came to Singapore in 2012 on loan from China, he is the first and only cub to be born to both of them. To conceive the cub, they had to make seven tries.
When they reach two, cubs born abroad are often returned to China in accordance with the conditions of Chinese panda loan agreements.
As a kind gesture, China lends these creatures to foreign nations; this practice is known as “panda diplomacy.”
Meanwhile, a deal reached by the Mandai Wildlife Group and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in 2022 prolonged Jia Jia and Kai Kai’s stay in Singapore for an additional five years, until 2027.
