Japanese zookeepers dress up as pandas after China takes back its national animal

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When China brought its pandas home from Japanese zoos, the staff at Wakayama Zoo decided to cheer everyone up by dressing up as pandas themselves, bringing a bit of fun to the loss.

Due to increasing friction between China and Japan, China is recalling its giant pandas from Japan. All pandas currently in Japan will be returned to China by the end of January 2026.

Adventure World, a theme park and zoo in Wakayama, Japan, is cheering up visitors after sending its pandas home in the summer of 2025. To make up for the pandas’ absence, staff members are playfully dressing up as them, relaxing in the panda enclosures, and even pretending to be fed by other employees.

Pandas might be gone from Japan, but zoos are making the best of it

At Adventure World, visitors can participate in the ‘Panda Love Program’ and experience what it’s like to be a panda caretaker. For about $51, they get to dress up in a panda-keeper uniform – complete with a black-and-white hat featuring panda ears – and help care for the pandas.

Customers will be able to try their hand at tasks similar to those performed by real animal caregivers, like making food, watching animal behavior, completing daily logs, and ensuring the exercise area is safe, according to The Times.

So, the park’s new thing lets you get a behind-the-scenes look at how they take care of the pandas – it’s really cool to see the bond between the pandas and the people who look after them. They’re really emphasizing how important it is to help ensure pandas are around for future generations, and you get to understand why that’s so vital when you go through it.

This special event lasts 90 minutes and gives participants a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a zookeeper. They’ll even get to playfully ‘feed’ apples to the staff dressed as animals through the enclosure.

The two giant pandas living at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, named Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, were originally planned to return to China in February. However, their departure has been moved forward to the end of January.

China uses ‘Panda Diplomacy’ to loan Giant Pandas to zoos around the world, often as part of agreements to help the pandas breed. However, China still owns all of these pandas and can bring them back whenever it chooses.

People in Japan are very sad to see the pandas leave, and many waited in line for hours at Ueno Zoo in December for a final chance to see them before they returned to China, with no definite plans for their return.

There are no current plans to bring pandas back, and experts don’t expect them to return in the near future because of increasing political disagreements between China and Japan.

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2026-01-08 21:19