Xi Mei

Basic Profile

Xi Mei (Chinese: 喜妹), studbook number 511, is a female giant panda born on August 8, 2000 at the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas (CCRCGP) Hetaoping Base. Her mother is Long Gu (龙古/Quan Quan) and her father is Da Di (大地).

She is a half-sister of Yang Guang (阳光) — the Edinburgh male — through their mother Long Gu.

The Hero Mother

Xi Mei is one of the most productive females in the CCRCGP program, with 11 offspring across multiple litters. She was named a “Hero Mother” (英雄母亲) for her remarkable breeding record, including consecutive twin births in 2005 and 2006, and giving birth to the year’s first global twin pair in 2012.

Offspring

Wild Training and the 2016 Incident

Xi Mei participated in the wild training program at Tiantai Mountain. In December 2016, when a staff member approached her cub, she attacked without hesitation — a fierce, protective response that confirmed her maternal instincts and wild nature were fully intact. The incident was recorded in CCRCGP reports as evidence of successful wild behavior development.

Ba Xi’s Rewilding

Xi Mei’s son Ba Xi (八喜) was successfully released into the wild at Liziping National Nature Reserve on November 23, 2017 — one of the few captive-born pandas to be successfully rewilded.