We have a great photo on the left courtesy of AP, of Fu Long who just moved to China from Austria and his Chinese keeper. Thanks to lupoforme of YouTube who linked this to us. What a great shot of the two of them, they look like they have bonded already.
We will be following Fu in the coming years, our friends in China as well as those who are planning to take trips to China to see him, all promising to report back to us with stories and photos.
And the highly anticipated day has finally come for Fu Ni and Wang Wang's move to Australia from the Bifengxia panda base in Yu'an, China. The zoo has dedicated a special website just for them at Wang Wang and Fu Ni this in addition to, the zoo's website about the pair at Adelaide Zoo giant pandas.
Thanks to hugwildlife of YouTube for sending a couple of articles our way describing their departure. The young panda pair left China on Friday, November 27, 2009.
"Four-year-old Wang Wang and three-year-old Fu Ni were put in a cage at 9 a.m. at China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Ya'an, Sichuan Province.
They will take a three-hour journey to the provincial capital Chengdu, where they will catch an afternoon flight to Australia" source: www.chinaview.cn
"The pandas' breeder and Huang Yan, an engineer of the Chinese center, will accompany the pandas to Australia and stay there for two months to help them adapt to the new environment.
"Sound preparations have been made both in China and Australia," said Huang. "We have asked the Adelaide Zoo to install air conditioners in the pandas' cage and keep the temperature under 25degrees Celsius."
"Fu Ni", which means happy girl in Chinese, will enter full sexual maturity in 2012 while "Wang Wang" will also be in the reproductive period, Huang said.
"I think they will adapt to their new home soon and are expected to have cubs in two and a half years," he said." source: www.chinaview.cn
Adelaide Now online and 7 News Adelaide has kept up with the movement of Wang and Fu with several videos before and after they arrived. Thanks for the great video coverage of the care and preparation taken for the safe transport of Wang and Fu.
