Meihin

Meihin (Chinese name 明浜, studbook number 662) is a male giant panda born on December 23, 2006 at Adventure World in Shirahama, Japan. His studbook number is part of the official global identification registry for captive-bred giant pandas maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He is the offspring of father Eimei (also known as Yongming, studbook 384) and mother Meimei (studbook 480), both captive-bred pandas originally from Sichuan, China, who resided at Adventure World as part of a long-term Sino-Japanese giant panda research partnership. Meihin spent the first year of his life at the Japanese facility, where he was monitored closely by zookeepers and conservation researchers to track early developmental milestones for the endangered species.

In December 2007, on his first birthday, Meihin was transferred to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan, his species’ native range, as part of the international collaborative agreement governing giant panda loans and captive breeding exchanges. Since his repatriation, he has been an active participant in the center’s captive breeding program, which is dedicated to preserving and expanding genetic diversity across the global captive giant panda population. His genetic lineage, derived from two pandas originally from separate Sichuan breeding lines that were housed outside of China for multiple years, brings valuable genetic variation to the center’s breeding pool, reducing the risk of inbreeding in captive populations.

Meihin’s cross-border birth and repatriation have made him a notable example of successful international collaboration for giant panda conservation, drawing consistent public interest to the shared global efforts to protect the species. He exhibits typical wild-derived foraging behaviors, consuming roughly 15 kilograms of bamboo each day, and regular observations of his feeding, activity, and social interaction patterns provide researchers with consistent data to compare panda behavior across individuals born in and outside of their native range. As of 2024, he remains a permanent resident of the Wolong center, contributing to both research and public outreach initiatives focused on giant panda conservation.