Japanese Zoo Staff Dress Up As Pandas To Entertain Visitors After Bears’ Return To China

Last Updated:January 10, 2026, 19:07 IST

Adventure World held panda-themed events as four pandas returned to China; now only Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei remain in Japan.

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Visitors at a Japanese zoo were in for a surprising treat when staff members donned giant panda costumes, playfully interacting with guests as part of a special attraction. The unusual activity at the Adventure World amusement park in Shirahama Town, Wakayama prefecture, is being seen as an attempt to keep alive the memories of the four pandas that have now been returned to China.

In June last year, 24-year-old Rauhin and her cubs—Yuihin, Saihin and Fuhin—returned to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China’s Sichuan province.

Adventure World launched a breeding cooperation programme with the Chinese panda research base in 1994, and over the past three decades, 17 giant pandas have been born at the Wakayama park.

Although it remains uncertain when the pandas will return due to diplomatic tensions between the two countries, the park has retained its panda facilities and continues to host panda-themed events.

A panda keeper experience tour is held at the park’s panda facilities every week, where people dress up as panda keepers to feed one of the four pandas that zoo members take turns to mimic.

“In a viral video clip, the staff member wears a panda hat and pretends to eat an apple given to him by a participant. They are also allowed to go inside the pandas’ living areas, which opened to the public after the bears left," a report in South China Morning Post highlighted.

At present, only two giant pandas remain in Japan. The twin pair, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, housed at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens, are scheduled to return to China by the end of January.

This is not the first time when a zoo has attempted to mimic other animals. Last year, a Chinese zoo faced criticism after admitting it had painted donkeys black and white to resemble zebras in an effort to boost visitor numbers.

The Zibo City amusement park in Shandong province confirmed that dye had been used on the animals, but maintained that it was non-toxic.

Before that, another zoo located in Taizhou in the Jiangsu province promoted itself on social media by colouring two dogs black and orange to resemble tigers.

“Our tigers are huge and very fierce!" the zoo claimed during a live on the ByteDance-owned app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

After the video went viral, social media users noted that the animals confined to wooden enclosures were not tigers, but two Chow Chow dogs painted bright orange with black stripes.

News viral Japanese Zoo Staff Dress Up As Pandas To Entertain Visitors After Bears’ Return To China

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