Mei Sheng

Mei Sheng is a male giant panda born on August 19, 2003 at San Diego Zoo, with the global giant panda studbook number 648. His official registration in the global studbook system supports coordinated international conservation management, allowing researchers and wildlife managers to track his lineage and health records across institutional boundaries. While initial records incorrectly listed his parents as Hua Mei and Da Shuang, confirmed genetic documentation identifies his parents as Bai Yun (studbook 453) and Gao Gao (studbook 487), both long-term resident giant pandas at San Diego Zoo during Mei Sheng’s first year of life. His birth marked a notable milestone for the San Diego Zoo’s giant panda breeding program, one of the most successful collaborative Sino-U.S. panda conservation partnerships in operation at the time.

Mei Sheng was relocated to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province, China on his first birthday, August 19, 2004, making him one of the first giant pandas born in the United States to be repatriated to his species’ native range. Sichuan is the historic core habitat of wild giant pandas, and the center leads global ex-situ giant panda conservation efforts, including structured breeding programs, genetic diversity management, and public outreach initiatives. Since his arrival, Mei Sheng has been an active participant in the center’s breeding program, contributing to the maintenance of genetic diversity in the captive giant panda population, and regularly appears in the center’s public education sessions for visitors.

Mei Sheng’s cross-institutional life history has made him a consistent focal point for public interest in global giant panda conservation collaboration. He exhibits typical species-specific foraging behavior, with a diet consisting primarily of multiple varieties of bamboo grown in the Sichuan region, and is frequently featured in educational materials highlighting the success of international cooperative conservation efforts. His life story is often cited in outreach materials to illustrate how cross-border partnerships between zoos and research institutions have supported giant panda recovery, a progress that led to the species’ reclassification from Endangered to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2016. As of 2024, he remains a resident of the China Conservation and Research Center, continuing his role as a conservation ambassador for his species.