Basi: Most Famous Giant Pandas

10 Of The Most Famous Giant Pandas Worldwide

These 10 Famous Giant Pandas are symbols of the successes recorded by animal conservation. And they get to live the celebrity life too.

Basi: Most Famous Giant Pandas
Basi With Her Birthday Cake. She Is The Oldest Living Captive Panda In The World (Photo: Xinhua/Barcroft Imagaes/Dailymail.co.uk)

Giant Pandas are a big deal wherever they live. Whether in the wild or in captivity, this is one animal no one can ignore.

The iconic black-on-white bears are always in the news and they are the darlings of social media too.

Below are 10 of the most famous Giant Pandas worldwide and the celebrity lives they live.

10 Of The Most Famous Giant Pandas Worldwide

1) Mei Sheng

Mei Sheng is one of the most famous giant pandas resident in Sichuan, China. This panda was however born in America at San Diego Zoo. Mei Sheng is the first cub of Bai Yun and Gao Gao. Mei Sheng is famous because it somehow provided inspiration to the Bruce Springsteen classic though born twenty years after the hit.

This giant panda successfully mated  with Ying Ying, a fellow female panda.

2) Basi

Basi is another popular female giant panda. Actually, she is the oldest living captive panda in the world. She just turned 37 years or over 100 years old in human years. Basi was born in 1980 in the Sichuan province.

She was found as a cub and rescued from a frozen river. She is trained to lift weights, ride bikes and shoot hoops.

This magnificent panda only feeds on liquid food and bamboo leaves but very few of them. She lives at the south east china.

Basi has several health challenges because she is reportedly said to be suffering from high blood pressure. Although she looks fairly good of health, she needs a cataract surgery.

3) Gu Gu

Another famous giant panda born on September 25th, 1999 living at the Beijing zoo. Gu Gu was born at the at the Wolong National Nature Reserve. Panda Gu Gu is well-known for attacking zoo visitors who trespass into his enclosure.

Many of the people who have seen this panda say its looks cute and cuddly. However, he is aggressive to intruders who have apparently found him irresistible.

4) Xin Xin

This giant panda was born in 1990 1st July. Her mother, known as Tohui conceived her through artificial insemination. The sperms were collected from Chia Chia (London Zoo) who was her father. However, both parents of Xin Xin are late.

Xin Xin currently lives in Chapultepec Zoo that is located in Mexico City.

Xin Xin is famous because she is one of the few pandas that are found in the Americas. Though she resides outside of the USA, she remains the main attraction where she resides.

5) Tai Shan

Tai-Shan : Most Famous Giant Pandas
The Panda Tai-Shan (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Tai Shan was born in the United States’ National Zoo in the year 2005. He has been living in captivity in Sichuan province, China with fellow panda Mei Lan since 2010 when they left Washington DC.

Tai Shan is popular after being a star in an Animal Planet documentary known as Baby Pandas First year. However, he has not participated in any further documentaries back in China.

6) Lun Lun

Born in China at the Chengdu research base of giant panda breeding, Lun Lun was first named Hua Hua. This was in the year 1997, 1st August. Hua Hua was renamed to Lun Lun by Su Huilin a Taiwanese rock star.

Lun Lun gave birth to cub later called Mei Lan through artificial insemination on September 6, 2006.

Mei Lan was the first born and Lun Lun later had more cubs including other sets of twins. Currently, Lun Lun lives at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta Georgia.

7) Hua Mei

Hua Mei is a famous panda that resides in Ya’an China at the Bifengxia Panda Base. She was born on August 21 1999 at the San Diego Zoo. Hua Mei’s parents are Bai Yui and Shi Shi.

Panda Hua Mei has delivered three sets of twins from 2004 to 2007. She is famous for being the first panda that lived up to its adulthood in the United States

8) Bao Bao

Panda Bao Bao is a panda cub that lives at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. She was born on August 23 in Washington DC at the National Zoo. Bao Bao is a result of artificial insemination being a cub of Tian Tian and Mei Xiang. She was moved to China on the February 21st 2017.

The separation of the cub from her family seemed cruel but it is believed she would not miss them. That’s because pandas stay with their moms for only two years in the wild before starting up their own life.

9) Tian Tian

Born in 2003 on August 24th, at the Beijing zoo, Tian Tian has history of being one of the two giant pandas available in the United Kingdom. Tian currently stays at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland where it arrived in 2011 from China. The parents of Tian Tian are Niu Niu the mother and Ying Ying, the father.

She arrived Scotland, accompanied by a male panda called Yang Guang. These two pandas were brought to the United Kingdom on a loan for ten years. Bifengxia Breeding Center in China is paid 640,000 euros per year for them.

After the unsuccessful season of mating in 2012, she underwent artificial insemination. This was the first artificial insemination procedure done on a giant panda in the United Kingdom.

10) Da Mao

Da Mao is another famous giant panda born on 1st September, 2008. He was born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding by Fu Wa the mother and Xiongbing, the father.

He is famous because of a cheerful disposition described as tender and lively as well as being very gentle. His name, Da Mao means the “first born” because he was the first born of his mother.

References:

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3337995/Queen-fur-day-Basi-world-s-second-oldest-panda-treated-like-royalty-140th-birthday-human-years-is.html

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_giant_pandas

3. http://www.chinasage.info/giantpanda.htm

4. https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-12-most-famous-pandas-in-china/

 

Photo Credits:

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4128374/Basi-world-s-oldest-panda.html

2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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