Zoo Aquarium of Madrid presents the first female panda bear baptized as Chulina

In the frame of the Chinese New Year’s celebration acts and the Cultural Week of Chengdu

The President of the Community of Madrid, the Ambassador of the Chinese Popular Republic, representatives of the local Government and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding have discovered the official name elected by the Spanish web users.

The Madrilenian Park will receive the Cultural Week of Chengdu with the artistic exhibition of giant figures of panda ArtParade and a historical photographic exhibition on the relations between China and Spain.

Madrid, January, 12nd 2.017. Zoo Aquarium of Madrid has presented today, officially, the first female panda bear giant of its history, and the fifth born of this species in the Madrilenian Park.

In an institutional ceremony in the frame of the Rooster Chinese New Year’s celebration acts and the Cultural Week of Chengdu, the official name of Chulina was known, the most voted by the Spanish web users. With this name, it was wanted to pay tribute to the first panda bear born in Occident in 1.982 that marked an era, being baptized by the Spanish children with the name of Chulín.

The institutional baptism, chaired by the Ambassador of the Chinese Popular Republic, Mr. Lyu Fan; the President of the Community of Madrid, Mrs. Cristina Cifuentes, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Parques Reunidos Group, Mr. Fernando Eiroa, had a representation of the local government of Chengdu and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where the breeding couple that arrived to Madrid in 2.007, come from. 

The Community of Madrid as one of the organizers of the Rooster Chinese New Year’s celebration acts in the capital city, beside the Embassy of the Chinese Popular Republic, has assisted to this ceremony describing it as “with particular importance to tighten the bows between both countries”, and also highlighting the big symbolism of a unique species in Spain that only can be visited in Madrid.

In his welcome to the authorities, the director of Operations Chief in Europe of the Parques Reunidos Group, Mr. Jesús Fernández, has underlined “the honor to have this species that represents four decades of relations with China, from the cession of the first couple of pandas (Shao Shao and Chang Chang) by Their Majesties Mr. Juan Carlos and Mrs. Sofia to the Zoo of Madrid, in 1.978, in their first institutional trip to this country”.

Doing a historical review, Fernández remembered the disappearance of Chulín, in 1.996, like a historical event that marked the memory of a generation of Spaniards that grew with him. “The return of a new breeding couple (Hua Zui Ba and Bing Xing), in September of 2.007, thanks to the agreement signed with the Association of Zoological Parks of China supposed a new step forward in the Cooperation, Conservation and Investigation of the Giant Pandas in Occident that has allowed, through the effort of these ex situ programs and also those carried out in situ, reduce in 2.016 its degree of threat."

In his intervention, Mrs. Zhang Yan, Administration Deputy Director of Forestry and Gardening of the City council of Chengdu, has highlighted the figure of the “panda bear like the best ambassador of the city of Chengdu, as a testimony of the intimate friendship and narrow historical cooperation that stand China and Spain”.

The Ambassador of the Chinese Popular Republic in Spain, Mr. Lyu Fan, has manifested, “the enormous pleasure to be part of the baptism of Chulina. A cub that, besides being a lovely life, constitutes the fruit of the friendship between two towns and the joint investigation between China and Spain on the panda bear”. The Ambassador has highlighted the cares that receives this species in the entire planet and especially in Madrid, being “one of the happiest families of panda bears in the world that now adds its new member, Chulina. She won’t just receive the affection of all the Spaniards, but also of the place of origin of this species, with reason of the Cultural Week of Chengdu with scientific talks, a photographic exhibition of the history of the Panda between China and Spain and the exhibition of panda art sculptures to put in knowledge this species and its mother homeland, Chengdu, to the Spanish public“.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Parques Reunidos Group, Mr. Fernando Eiroa, the Ambassador of the Chinese Popular Republic in Spain, Mr. Lyu Fan, the President of the Community of Madrid, Mrs. Cristina Cifuentes, Administration Deputy Director of Forestry and Gardening of the City council of Chengdu, Mrs. Zhang Yan And the Operations Chief in Europe of the Parques Reunidos Group, Mr. Jesús Fernández, at the presentation of Chulina, the female panda of Zoo Aquarium of Madrid.
 

First apparition of Chulina

Surrounded by the expectancy of authorities and media, mother and daughter have made their first exit  to the outside pagoda, after four months and half in which the cub has been permanently suckled by her mother Hua Zui Ba until turning into a strong cub that already is able to sustain on her feet and walk her first steps.

On these first months, Chulina has grown in a fast way, going on 180 grams of weight to 8 kilos, and she  has already shown her strong character that she notices when she does not like something or when she wants to demand the attention of her mother. 

Since it was set up the popular vote through the official Zoo of Madrid Facebook page, the past month of October, Chulina was the favorite name, with a 59,5% of the votes, followed by Hua Hua (short name of Hua Zui Ba, beautiful flower) and Hua Bao (baby of Hua Zui Ba), with 14,4% of the votes.

Cultural week of Chengdu, on January 12nd to 19th

The ceremony of official baptism of Chulina has concluded with the inauguration of the itinerant exhibition of art of Chengdu designated ArtParade, integrated by 20 sculptures of panda bears with designs of alive colors which the aim to transmit the importance of this species all over the world and the power of cultural innovation of China, that pretends to spread the art of a closely linked country to the panda.

This striking sculptural exhibition will be able to be visited, along the installation of pandas, until next February 4th. The Cultural Week of Chengdu in Zoo Aquarium of Madrid will count furthermore with a photographic exhibition on the History of pandas in Madrid through the relations with China from 1.978 and two scientific conferences given by the Director of the Chengdu Base and its Scientific Investigation Manager around their routine work and the breeding of this species, next January 13rd and 14th.

Population of Giant Panda Bear and collaboration with the Chinese Government

The narrow collaboration of the Parques Reunidos Foundation and Zoo of Madrid with the station of reproduction and investigation of giant pandas of Chengdu (CRBGPB) articulated  through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums of China (CAZG) and the Administration for the Protection of the Forests (SFA) in June, 2.007. Fruit of this collaboration, in addition to the 4 births occurred since; Parques Reunidos Foundation has allocated an annual contribution to the
reforestation program of the panda bears’ habitat, that covers more than 2,5 million protected hectares in the forests where they live in situ, in China.

According to the last data, it is estimated a population in freedom of 1.864 specimens in its natural habitat, in the mountain ranges of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. China has 6 breeding centers and 37 protection areas where the breeding couples allocated in 17 zoos, of 12 countries around the world are from. At present, its population in Europe is formed by 14 specimens in Madrid, Vienna, Edinburgh, Beauval-France and Pairi Daiza-Belgium.