Tohui
Tohui (born July 21, 1981 in Chapultepec , Mexico City ; † November 16, 1993 ibid) was a female panda bear (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) who lived in the Chapultepec Zoo all her life .
prehistory
On September 10, 1975, panda bears Pe Pe and Ying Ying arrived in Mexico City as a gift from the Chinese government. They had their first baby, Xen Li, in 1980, who only lived eight days after his mother accidentally crushed her to death while she was sleeping.
Life of tohui
When Tohui was born in 1981, cameras were installed all over the enclosure to avoid repeating the tragic incident as much as possible. Due to the media coverage and the associated expectation in the Mexican population that the second baby panda born outside of China (after Sister Xen Li) would be the first to reach adulthood, the birth of Tohui became a national and international event part of the history of the Chapultepec Zoo.
On the first weekends after Tohui's birth, more than a million people came to the Chapultepec Zoo and the lines in front of their enclosure reached as far as the Monumento a los Niños Héroes . The special event was also used for marketing purposes. Tohui graced posters, t-shirts and all sorts of other things. Many shops and fashion labels also used the panda to increase sales. Fraudsters also tried to get money with this scam. For example, some fraudsters in front of the Chapultepec metro station offered alleged tickets, with the purchase of which one would be entitled to see the panda up close. At the suggestion of Carmen Romano, the country's first lady at the time, the song El oso panda de Chapultepec ( Spanish for The little panda from Chapultepec ) was created. The song, composed by Laura Gómez Llanos and recorded by the singer Yuri , sold more than a million copies and is still played on the radio today. In connection with the song, a video clip was filmed at Chapultepec Zoo, in which singer Yuri can be seen with some children and the little tohui with her mother Ying Ying. In 1987 the Mexican central bank issued a commemorative coin depicting Tohui in her mother's arms. Tohui died at the age of 12 from complications from leptospira .
Surname
The animal was originally to be named Cancún because the Mexican city of the same name hosted an international north-south summit in 1981, attended by the heads of state from 22 countries. However, when it became known that this means "snake's nest " in the Mayan language , this name was discarded and another name was sought. A competition was called for this and the jury selected the four-year-old boy Parmenides Orpinel García from the municipality of Guachochi in the state of Chihuahua from the numerous proposals . The term comes from the Tarahumara language and means "child". Allegedly, the term strictly speaking only describes a male child, especially since it was initially mistakenly assumed that the female bear was a bear. But when the actual gender became known, the name was retained and the female bear was not given the actual female name "Tehuete". The four-year-old winner of the naming competition was invited to Mexico City to visit the zoo and to attend the award ceremony. The award consisted of two parts; a model car of the year (1982) with the panda's face on the hood and a grant . While he was given the model car immediately, he is said to never have received the scholarship later.
Siblings and offspring
Tohui's brother Liang Liang was born in 1983, her sister Xin Hua (dandelion flower) in 1985 and her youngest sister Shuan Shuan (doppelganger) in 1987. In 1990 Tohui gave birth to their only daughter, Xin Xin. Xin Xin's father was Chia Chia and had previously been brought to Mexico from the London Zoo .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Tohui Panda and the¨Mexican Madonna¨ (English; article from March 1, 2010)
- ↑ a b c d e Cintya Contreras (Excelsior): A 30 años de Tohuí, el osito panda en Chapultepec (Spanish; article from July 17, 2011)
- ↑ a b c Ana Gabriela Rojas (BBC Mexico): ¿Por qué México tiene los dos únicos pandas en el mundo que no pertenecen a China? (Spanish; article of May 25, 2018)
