Early Years and Life At The Zoo
Ling Ling was born at the Beijing Zoo in Beijing, China, in September 1985. He was given to Japan and the Ueno Zoo in November 1992 by China in exchange for a panda which had been born in Japan. The 1992 panda exchange, between China and Japan, which is often called Panda diplomacy, took place to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral Sino-Japanese relations in 1972. He remained one of the Ueno Zoo's most popular attractions for over 15 years.
The Ueno Zoo paired Ling Ling with a female panda named Tong Tong. The two pandas became mates, but were unable to breed successfully and produced no offspring. Tong Tong died in 2000, leaving Ling Ling as the only giant panda at the Ueno Zoo. The zoo had tried unsuccessfully to breed Ling Ling with other pandas since 2001 using artificial insemination. Ling Ling was even sent out of Japan to Mexico three times in an attempt to mate him with other pandas.
Read more about this topic: Ling Ling (giant Panda)
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