Zoo in Finland returning giant pandas to China as they are too expensive to keep

A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.

The private Ahtari Zoo in central Finland, some 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of Helsinki, said on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow”, and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall”, will return “prematurely” to China later this year.

The panda pair were China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.

But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.

The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalised in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland’s then-president Sauli Niinisto.

The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.

The Ahtari Zoo, which specialises in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some eight million euros (£6.7 million) in the hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve.

The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros (£1.25 million) annually.

The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.

The Chinese embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ahtari to solve its financial difficulties, including by urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements.

However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo.

The panda pair will enter into a month-long quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.

Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950.

China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.