Baby boom at Taipei Zoo brings cheer to a gloomy year

A baby panda has been this year's star attraction at Taipei Zoo

Credit: AFP

A baby boom at Taiwan’s largest zoo has provided a welcome distraction to a year overshadowed by the global pandemic and rising regional tensions over Chinese territorial ambitions. 

Baby pandas and pangolins have been the star additions to the residents of Taipei Zoo, in the Taiwanese capital, and helped to boost footfalls again after a slump in visitors trying to avoid mass crowds. 

The birth of young Formosan serows, Eurasian otters, jackass penguins, koalas, marmosets and black-capped squirrel monkeys have also kept zookeepers busy. 

Asian small-clawed otters at Taipei Zoo

Credit: Sam Yeh/AFP

“We are very lucky this year with successful breedings from many international cooperation projects with our partner zoos and aquariums in Europe and Southeast Asia,” Taipei Zoo spokesman Eric Tsao told AFP. 

Taiwan has emerged largely unscathed this year from the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 515 cases so far, but the public has shied away from normally crowded spaces like the zoo, causing a 20-30 per cent drop in visitors. 

A baby has been added to the ranks of endangered pangolins

Credit: AFP

Yuan Bao, the second female cub born to giant panda Yuan Yuan, has generated the most excitement and headlines, particularly after the public were invited in the summer to join a naming competition. 

The zoo eschewed some of the more politically tinged suggestions and opted for Yuan Bao, which means “round baby” in Mandarin. So far, she has only made appearances on social media but is expected to make her zoo debut later this year. 

Hello world: Yuan Bao was born in July

Credit: TAIPEI ZOO HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The panda birth has also offered a rare moment of goodwill during one of the most tense periods in Taiwan-China relations in recent years, with Chinese fighter jets regularly being used in an intimidation campaign against the democratic island. 

The cub’s parents Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan arrived from China in 2008 to symbolise the warming of relations at that time. While normally, panda cubs would be reclaimed by the Chinese, Yuan Bao will be allowed to remain in Taipei. 

Mofen, a Malayan tapir who featured in director Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film Life of Pi — some of which was filmed in southern Taiwan — also became a new mother this year.