Opening of panda exhibit delights UK zoo visitors

EDINBURGH, United Kingdom - Snapping up some leafy stalk of bamboo, two Chinese pandas in Edinburgh Zoo were received by the British public on Friday.

About 600 excited panda fans watched Tian Tian and Yang Guang, the first pandas in the United Kingdom after 17 years, from behind a glass window on the first day of the opening of the panda exhibit.

The number of visitors was a 200 percent increase compared with a typical mid-December Friday, the zoo said in a news release. Pre-booked numbers for the first weekend are up by almost 80 percent for a pre-Christmas winter weekend.