To celebrate the arrival, in December 2011, of two Chinese pandas on long term loan to Edinburgh Zoo.
In the final version, published in book 48, bars 25-32 have been modified. Don’t use earlier “originals”.
Pandas
The giant panda (
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
, usually abbreviated to “panda”) is a type of bear which occurs in the wild only in China. Its black-and-white coat is very iconic and indeed the animal has been selected as the logo for the
WWF
(that’s “World Wide Fund for Nature” – “World Wildlife Fund” in the USA and Canada –, not “World Wrestling Federation”). There are around 2000 pandas in the wild and the species is considered “vulnerable”.
The animals are cute and endearing but not to be underestimated: While they mostly feed on bamboo, their anatomy remains that of a predator. This is probably the reason why they do eat lots of bamboo and try to move as little as possible (one needs to make the most of those few calories after all). “They could hunt, but they’re much too lazy”, a panda keeper told me on a visit to Edinburgh Zoo in 2013. One still shouldn’t mess with a panda – the animals weigh around 130 kg and that is all muscle. Pandas mark their territory by peeing on trees – the farther up, the more impressive (obviously) the panda and the bigger the respect due to it and its territory by other bears. To increase this effect as much as possible, pandas do the needful in a handstand.
From “Anselm's Notes on Dances”, by Anselm Lingnau
(Used by permission.)
Pandas in Edinburgh Zoo
The title of
Sunshine and Sweetie's Jig
specifically refers to the two pandas,
Yang Guang
(Sunshine) and
Tian Tian
(Sweetie), which arrived in Edinburgh Zoo on long-term loan in 2011 but had to be returned in 2023 – in the course of “panda diplomacy”, the cute animals are no longer given away by the People’s Republic of China but instead rented temporarily. In the case of the Edinburgh pandas, the contract ran for 10 years and was extended for two more years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost as popular with visitors as the
penguins
with their daily parade, the two never managed to produce the long-awaited offspring. Instead they had to serve as the inspiration for crude political jokes; for a time, it was said, there were fewer Tory MSPs in Scotland than pandas – a circumstance which since the 2024 elections almost holds again (Tories: 5, pandas: 0).
From “Anselm's Notes on Dances”, by Anselm Lingnau
(Used by permission.)