A female panda. Photo: AFP

 A female giant panda, leased from China and on display at the Kobe Oji Zoo in Kobe, Japan since July 2000, will stay until the end of 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and for health reasons, the zoo announced on Monday. 

The panda, named Tan Tan, was expected to return to China in July 2020 when the contract between the zoo and the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda came to an end.  

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic which started in early 2020, the two sides agreed that Tan Tan would continue to stay at the zoo through December 2021. 

As Tan Tan has been diagnosed with heart disease, her return to China was delayed once again.  

According to the zoo, Tan Tan is 26 years old, roughly equivalent to 75 to 79 years old for humans. She was diagnosed with heart disease this spring. During treatment and examinations, Tan Tan was not on display, although she currently is. Decisions about if or when Tan Tan will return to China will depend on her health status.  

An anonymous source close to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda told the Global Times on Tuesday that according to the practice of exchange and research on pandas between China and other countries, Chinese experts will cooperate with the Japanese zoo staff in treating the panda's illness, including  directing or communicating about the treatment online. 

Previously, the two sides reached an agreement that Tan Tan would return to Southwest China's Sichuan Province in July 2020. However, due to the suspension of nonstop flights and the entry ban for escort zookeepers amid the COVID-19 epidemic, Tan Tan had to stay at the Kobe zoo until December 2020, when it was agreed Tan Tan's stay at the zoo would be extended to December 2021. 

However, if the current spread of the Omicron variant and Tan Tan's health are taken into consideration, it is difficult for the panda to return to China at present. 

Diao Kunpeng, a panda expert and director of Beijing Qingye Ecology, told the Global Times on Tuesday that a panda's expected lifespan is 26.5 years on average. Like people, elderly pandas can have a variety of geriatric diseases such as joint degeneration, vision degeneration and dental problems. 

Although there is a Chinese saying, and a custom as well, that fallen leaves would return to the roots, that is, burying someone back home when they die, whether and when to bring Tan Tan back to the Chinese research center in Sichuan, where she was born on September 16, 1995, will be decided by her health status, according to the source close to the Chinese panda research center. 

According to Yujiro Kako, director of the zoo, although Tan Tan's health has not improved, the zoo has been trying its best to maintain her health status by means including increasing the indoor oxygen concentration.