‘Panda’-monium in the City of Taipei

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) enlisted the help of Paulo Grangeon in an attempt to bring the public’s attention to the plight of endangered animals around the world. The French artist created exactly 1600 papier mache giant pandas to signify the estimated number of the rarest member of the bear family currently still living in the wild. Since the initial debut of the “Pandas World Tour” in front of the Eiffel Tower in 2008, the bears have visited 20 cities around the world including Berlin, Hamburg, and Rome. Taipei is the first stop of the exhibition’s tour of Asia and they have since been spotted at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, at the Civic Plaza in front of Taipei City Hall, boarding the Taipei Metro, and at the National Concert Hall. A total of 200 Formosan black bears joins the black-patched bears to highlight the plight of the only bear native to Taipei.