China Interested to Begin Panda Research along with Japan

A few days back, we uploaded an entry in this blog about Japan being interested to get more Pandas from China, upon the death of a giant Panda named Ling Ling in a Zoo situated in Tokyo. Japan government immediately requested China to provide a pair of pandas on lease.

Now, according to recent report out on the media, Chinese president Hu Jintao said that his country was contemplating to involve in panda research in cooperation with Japan. Mr. President is going to visit China on a five day tour from May 6 to 10.

Xinhuanet reported:

Japan has requested that China send a pair of pandas for the purpose of research cooperation. "We understand the Japanese people's aspiration," Hu said, noting he had also noticed that Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had given attention to the issue.

Fukuda has expressed the hope that China would lend pandas to Japan for this purpose. His comments came a day after the death on April 30 of Ling Ling, a giant panda sent to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo in 1992, in exchange for a Japanese-born panda cub.

Japan has 8 giant pandas and all are on loan from China. China has the tradition of gifting Pandas to the governments of different countries to tie up the bonds. China provided a pair of pandas, Lan Lan and Kang Kang, to Japan for the first time in 1972 to celebrate the reestablishment of political relationship between the two countries.

Panda is one of the endangered species of animal in the world. So, it would be good initiative if China and Japan lead research on panda together in order to protect this popular species from being extinct.