Posted: May 22 2013  By: Admin



Panda bear cubs Po and De De, who were born at Madrid's Zoo Aquarium on Sept. 7, 2010, are settling into their new lives at the panda reserve in Chengdu, China, where they will live from now on, a keeper said.

The pandas arrived in Chengdu, China's Southwest Sichuan Province, on Saturday after a trip that lasted more than 30 hours, the keeper, who accompanied the animals on the trip, said.

The cubs are the offspring of Hua Zui Ba, a female, and Bing Xing, who were provided by China to the Madrid zoo in 2007. Po and De De will be isolated from the other pandas at the reserve until the quarantine period ends.

The pandas "were a bit nervous" during the long trip, especially when their carriers were moved from one vehicle to another, keeper Alejandro Cabrera, who traveled to China with the cubs, said.

Po and De De were at the center of celebrations and special events in Madrid in the days before their departure for China.

The pandas made a 20-hour trip by truck from Madrid to Amsterdam and then were in the air 13 hours on the KLM plane that took them to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

The cubs were in the cargo hold, but Cabrera was able to check on them throughout the trip to ensure they were in good shape.

Beijing has changed its "panda diplomacy" in recent years and now lends the bears to foreign zoos instead of giving them away.

Source: globalpost