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Ocean Park Celebrates the 19th Birthdays of its Giant Panda Ambassadors and National Ecology Day

2024-08-14

Ocean Park hosted a birthday party for its much-loved giant panda ambassadors, Ying Ying and Le Le, who have turned 19 years old this month.
 
The animal husbandry team once again teamed up with Häagen-Dazs™ to tailor-make flashy-coloured icy cakes made with lots of love and birthday wishes. The specially designed cakes were made with the duo’s favourite food, including bamboo, sweet potato, carrot, pear, Sar Kor and apple, adorned with their name and age.
 
Ying Ying and Le Le have played an essential role in raising public awareness about the critical need for environmental protection and wildlife conservation. In celebration of National Ecology Day on 15 August, this joyous occasion for the panda duo serves as a reminder of the importance of cultivating a more sustainable and ecologically balanced world to safeguard the well-being of wildlife animals as well as humans. Those who visit the Park tomorrow will not only have the chance to receive a recyclable fan, but also the opportunity to join the Spotted Seals Fun Talk to get to know more about the relationship between spotted seals and Chinese ecology.
 
Other than giant pandas which are a flagship species for ecological conservation, Ocean Park is also home to a few Chinese species with high conservation values. These include the highly social Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys, the adorable red pandas, the critically endangered Chinese alligators and the amazing Chinese giant salamanders.
 
Giant pandas are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Ocean Park's partnership with the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda has driven conservation, successfully boosting panda populations. As a Nature Conservation Base of Sichuan, China, Ocean Park works closely with experts in Sichuan to further these vital initiatives.
 
To promote community collaboration and inspire participation in conservation, the Park has launched a new conservation advocacy initiative named Mission R in 2023 which focuses on reversing species extinction trends. With three key directions — Saving Species and Habitats, Eat Local and Plastic Challenge, Mission R aims to encourage behaviour changes in daily life and invite the public to work collectively towards a sustainable future.