Taiwan’s panda lovers can rest assured that all of the Taipei Zoo’s giant pandas – including Tuan Tuan -- are alive and well.
The zoo said that a story published by a Chinese website on Monday afternoon announcing Tuan Tuan’s death was a hoax. The story had said erroneously that Tuan Tuan, a gift from China to Taiwan in 2008, had died of distemper. The website later issued an apology and removed the story from its website.
Taipei Zoo spokesperson Eric Tsao said on Monday that he has no idea who spread the rumor and that the public can rest assured, because the giant panda is doing just fine.
“Tuan Tuan is as happy as ever in the outdoor exhibition area. He has no idea who is unhappy with him and why they reported the inaccurate news," said Tsao.
Tsao said that there is a large amount of information circulating on the Internet, so the public needs to be able to tell truth from fiction.