Two giant pandas arrived in Scotland on Sunday as part of a loan agreement between China and the UK.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang – or Sweetie and Sunshine in English – arrived at Edinburgh airport after flying in from Sichuan province – China.
“Scotland’s relationship with China is hugely important and the pandas represent a fantastic opportunity to deepen our business, cultural and diplomatic ties,” said Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Since the 1950s, China has given away pandas as gestures of goodwill in what has come to be known as “panda diplomacy.”
Modern China gave its first pair of giant pandas to Britain in 1974.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “I know that a huge amount of work has gone into securing their loan and they will be a great showcase for UK-China links in science and research.”
The eight-year-old pair, raised at the Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center in Ya’an, Sichuan, will become Britain’s first pair of breeding pandas in 17 years.
Iain Valentine, director of conservation and research at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, was pleased that five years of negotiation with the Chinese authorities had finally paid off.
“This is the exciting bit, this is the bit I have been waiting for a very long time,” he said.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang will not go on display at Edinburgh Zoo for at least a week, until they have settled into their new surrounds. They will remain there for 10 years, after which they, and any young they have, will be returned to China.
As part of the loan deal, Edinburgh Zoo will pay £0.5m a year to China, 90 percent of which will pay for conservation and genetics research. The zoo will also have to find up to 70,000 pounds a year to provide around 18,000 kg (almost 20 tons) of bamboo shoots, most of which will come from a special nursery outside Amsterdam.
Considered a national treasure, the giant panda is seen as having come back from the brink of extinction, but remains under threat from logging, agriculture and rapid urbanisation.
There are an estimated 1,600 living wild in China, almost all in Sichuan. Around 300 are in captivity around the world, the vast majority of them inside China.
Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed because females ovulate only once a year and can only become pregnant during a two- or three-day period.
Related Posts:
- Edinburgh Zoo Wants Taxpayers To Fund Panda Plan
- BHS Scotland Celebrates After 40 Years Of Improving The Lives Of Horses In Scotland
- Scottish Join Global Protest At Chinese Fur Trade Cruelty
- New Figures And Report Expose Shocking Reality Of Animal Experiments In Scotland
- Could it be love for Marwell’s giant anteaters?
- The British Horse Society And A Gentle Giant Make A Wish Come True For Two Little Girls
- Endangered Socorro Doves Arrive At The Albuquerque Zoo
- Not A Happy Chinese New Year For UK Pigs
- BBC’s Landward And Ride-Scotland.co.uk To Promote South Of Scotland Equestrian Tourism
- Scotland Is Sprucing Up For The Young Kennel Club Groomer Of The Year Competition
