China

China panda couple head for Australia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-27 11:02

A giant panda chews bamboo shoots at a breed center in Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan province Thursday November 26, 2009, before its Friday flight to Australia for a 10-year stay. [Asianewsphoto]

CHENGDU - A giant panda couple left their southwest China home on a passenger plane Friday for a 10-year stay in Australia, which will be the first time for the endangered species to live in the southern hemisphere.

Aboard flight SQ7855 of Singapore Airlines, 4-year-old male Wang Wang and 3-year-old female Fu Ni left Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, at 5:30 p.m. and are expected to land at Adelaide International Airport in southern Australia at about 10:10 a.m. Saturday (Beijing Time) after a brief stopover in Singapore.

The couple were transferred to Chengdu Friday noon after more than two hours' journey from the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Ya'an City of Sichuan.

Two specialists from China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Huang Yan and Luo Bo, will accompany the pandas in Adelaide until they are adapted to the new environment.

Wang Wang, meaning "the web", was born on August 31, 2005. He is half-brother to Yuan Yuan, the female panda sent to Taiwan. He is gentle and tame, and weighs 115 kilograms.

Fu Ni, meaning "happy girl", was born in 2006 and weighs 90 kilograms. She's lively and enjoys climbing trees and frolicking in water.

The couple will stay in Australia for 10 years under the two countries' agreement for a joint research on the species.

A brief farewell ceremony was held for the two pandas at the Ya'an Nature Reserve, where they had lived since their former homes in Wolong were destroyed in the May 12 earthquake last year.

Simone Bayly, a senior zoologist from Adelaide, said the Australian zoo keepers would treat the pandas as their own children.

Even before their arrival, the pandas had sparked a craze among the Australians, she said. Some families in Adelaide even planted bamboo at home.

The panda house at Adelaide Zoo covered 4,000 square meters, with an air conditioner and a playground, said Dr. Wayne Boardman, head of veterinary services at Adelaide Zoo.

He said the zoo had recreated the pandas' home in Sichuan while designing their new house, in order to create a familiar environment.

The pandas will more closely tie up the two countries, he said.

Boardman and Bayly had spent two weeks in Ya'an, becoming familiar with the pandas and learning firsthand experience from China's panda keepers.

Wang Wang and Fu Ni would need about a month to fully adapt to the new environment and were likely to produce offspring in two years, said Zhang Hemin, China's top giant panda specialist who's known as the "father" of pandas.

China and Australia agreed to conduct joint research on giant pandas in 2007. The research program focuses on the breeding, reproduction and behavioral study of the rare species.

"The departure of Wang Wang and Fu Ni marks a formal beginning of such cooperation," said Zhong Yi, an official in charge of international cooperation at China Wildlife Conservation Association.

"They will bring laughter to Australians, and will cement the friendship between the Chinese and Australian peoples."

Edmund Ng, director of Australia's giant panda program, said he hoped the couple will have their babies soon and push forward the friendship of Chinese and Australian people.

Huang Yan said the program will help more Australian people understand the situation of the endangered animal and encourage public participation in environment protection.

Giant pandas, known for being sexually inactive, are among the world's most endangered animals due to shrinking habitat.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.