Hundreds of thousands of people around the world joined us and Panda Voices in calling on the Memphis Zoo to send its neglected giant pandas Yaya and LeLe back to China, and while LeLe tragically passed away before getting the chance, we’re thrilled to report that YaYa is now thriving in her homeland.

YaYa arrived in Shanghai, China, on April 27 and was received with great emotion and the love of millions of Chinese citizens, a fresh pile of bamboo, and many bamboo shoots. After a month of quarantine in Shanghai, she finally traveled back to her hometown in Beijing on May 28, where we saw a happy and smiling YaYa being welcomed with various piles of green and high-quality bamboo.

In just a few months of living in China, it is easy to notice the improvement in YaYa’s appearance and the big difference from the 20 years she was kept in Memphis Zoo. In recent updates of YaYa, we can see that she is always surrounded by a great amount of fresh food and is always eating big, nutritious bamboo shoots. In Memphis, YaYa and LeLe, who passed in February, were rarely given bamboo shoots, even though the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens (CAZG) requested the zoo to give the pandas bamboo shoots daily, in order to increase the nutrients in their diets and help them gain weight. This is not a problem for YaYa anymore and bamboo shoots are now part of her daily diet.

YaYa languished before at the Memphis Zoo and now is much happier in China.

A chubby, active, and happy YaYa is now seen playing in the yard of Beijing Zoo. It is noticeable that she has gained weight and her fur condition appears to have greatly improved. The many patches of shedding fur that used to be on her furry coat are disappearing and her fur looks cleaner and shiny. The Chinese panda experts are providing her with the appropriate treatment for her skin disease. In contrast, Memphis Zoo never helped YaYa improve her skin issue and instead insisted that she was healthy despite obvious signs to the contrary.

YaYa is living peacefully in an area that is closed to visitors, so she can enjoy her retirement at her own pace and do what she wants to do, without the need to serve anyone.

We are still heartbroken that LeLe did not have the chance to return to his homeland, but his death exposed to the world the negligence and cruelty of Memphis Zoo.

While In Defense of Animals does not endorse zoos or support zoo captivity, and hoped to see YaYa sent to one of the panda centers in China–which are basically specialized panda refuges– it’s clear that Memphis Zoo was incredibly inadequate with its panda care and that YaYa is doing immensely better in her native land in a far superior enclosure at the Beijing Zoo, where she was born. China takes very special care of its beloved pandas and the bears have access to top-quality, native bamboo and their natural climate. 

For more on how to help animals like YaYa, visit our Wild Animals campaign.