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Giant Panda Zoo Awards 2014: the winners revealed

Xinhua, January 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The winners of the annual Giant Panda Zoo Awards were revealed on Friday at the Belgian panda zoo, Pairi Daiza.

According to the results, Hao Hao from Pairi Daiza received the gold award for favorite panda outside of China. The ZooParc de Beauval in France received the gold award for favorite panda enclosure outside of China.

In addition, Chinese president Xi Jinping and King Philippe of Belgium's visit to Hao Hao and Xing Hui at Pairi Daiza was awarded a first prize for panda moment of the year.

From Dec. 12, 2014 until Jan. 18, 2015, panda fans from around the world were invited to vote for their favorite pandas, people, institutions, organizations, and zoos. There were 258,490 votes cast in ten categories during the one-month online contest.

"The third edition of the Giant Panda Zoo Awards was again a huge success," said Belgian panda aficionado and award founder Jeroen Jacobs. Most zoos with giant pandas in their collections were very proud and enthusiastic about participating and to promote their nominees, he said.

According to Jacobs, the awards are the time of year for the general public to speak up and support those who have worked very hard in the panda conservation field.

The Giant Panda Zoo Awards are organized by www.GiantPandaZoo.com, a website about captive giant pandas around the world to promote the important panda conservation work in China and abroad.

Jacobs founded the website in October 2000, but his passion for pandas began during many visits to his Belgian hometown zoo in the summer of 1987. Since then, he has visited 40 different locations with giant pandas.

"When my passion for pandas started as a young boy, the future for this amazing creature didn't seem very bright. It was a big questions if there would be any giant pandas left for my future children to see," he told Xinhua.

There are only 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild. The captive population today is 397. Endite