Singaporeans bid ‘bittersweet’ farewell to China-bound panda cub Le Le
- Le Le, the first Singapore-born panda, made his final public appearance at the River Wonders wildlife park before a month-long quarantine
- The two-year-old panda is scheduled to travel to Chengdu on January 16 in a custom-made crate on board a Singapore Airlines freighter plane
Le Le, the first panda to be born in the city state, made his final public appearance at the River Wonders wildlife park before a month-long quarantine ahead of his departure.
Dozens of visitors lined up to see Le Le amble around his enclosure, eating bamboo and carrot sticks that keepers had hidden under paper planes and inside cardboard suitcases.
Among them was Lucilla Teoh, a self-described “panda-holic”, who wore a T-shirt and hat decorated with panda motifs and sparkly panda earrings for the special occasion.
The 61-year-old said she considers herself Le Le’s “grand-aunty” as she had watched him grow from a tiny baby into a 73kg (161-pound) cub.
“Obviously it’s bittersweet, I wish he could stay longer,” Teoh said.
“But I also feel he has a part to play in panda conservation, that it is important for him to go back to China, grow up a bit, and then hopefully he gets to be a panda ambassador and come out like his parents.”
