Pandas devour ice cake to celebrate 50 years at US National Zoo
The event marked the 1972 agreement between Richard Nixon’s administration and the Chinese government.
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The US National Zoo’s most famous tenants have enjoyed a special breakfast in front of adoring crowds as the attraction celebrated 50 years of its panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.
The “cake” was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane, and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC.
Xiao Qi Ji’s father Tian Tian largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighbouring enclosure with the sounds of his chomping clearly audible during a statement by Chinese ambassador Qin Gang.
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Pandas are almost entirely solitary by nature, and in the wild Tian Tian would probably never even meet his child. He received a similar cake for lunch.
In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by then-president Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China, Saturday’s celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding programme, which has helped bring the bears back from the brink of extinction.
![Brandie Smith and Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/d88ede55b027607c56303e3bd92cf08eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjUwMjE5Mzky/2.66414720.jpg?w=640)
At the age of 22, Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States.
“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo’s senior curator for mammals.
The now 20-month-old cub was given a name that translates as “little miracle”.
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“I know how passionate people are about pandas,” Mr Amaral said. “I’m not surprised by that passion at all.”
Sure enough, crowds started streaming straight for the panda section at 8am. when the zoo opened.
Sisters Lorelai and Everley Greenwell, aged six and five, ran towards the enclosure chanting: “Pandas! Pandas!”
They watched the cub tumble around, trying to wrestle his mother and tearing the zero off the giant “50” emblazoned on the ice cake.
![Giant Pandas](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/013f29a860e4bec11b27ae9a242ce840Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjUwMjE5NDY1/2.66414041.jpg?w=640)
The zoo’s original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs: Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei – also by artificial insemination.
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Similar agreements with zoos around the world have helped revitalise the giant panda population.
Down to just over 1,000 bears in the 1980s, the species has since been removed from the lists of animals in danger of extinction.