-Talk about service -- a huge new airplane with your own logo on the side, only eight people on board, including your doctor, a member of the opposite sex right beside you and more than 50 pounds of your favorite food available "on demand." -
Its pretty amazing to see how much work and detail is involved to ensure Mei and Tai's safe journey to China along with the final sendoff events that the zoo's have set up for those who wish to see them one last time.
Both Zoo Atlanta and the National Zoo will be holding events tomorrow, January 30, 2010 with raffles and other special activies, be sure to go to the zoo's websites to see the details.
Both pandas who went through extensive physical exams before being cleared to travel, will be leaving on February 4th, 2010. For Mei Lan, she will be trucked to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport by a FedEx convoy. There, she’ll board what’s being dubbed the “FedEx Panda Express” – a new 777 Freighter with super-sized panda decals on both sides of the nose – and fly to Washington, Dulles Airport. Tai Shan will be coaxed into the travel crate early in the morning, loaded onto a truck and driven about 9 to the airport with a police escort.
Safe inside custom-built transport containers, the pandas will depart Washington in the late morning Thursday and arrive in Chengdu, China in late afternoon Friday.
Both Mei and Tai will be accompanied by their own keepers and veterinarians, who have taken care of them over the years. Mei Lan's keeper will be Heather Roberts. Roberts said she was sure she’d shed tears in the end. "She’s our baby, our first baby," the keeper said. "Although we’re very excited for her, it will be sad. It will be hard to say goodbye.” Tai Shan's keeper, Nicole Reese has been Tai's trainer since he was 6 months old, talks about the special bond that she and Tai have developed on the video that the Washington Post put together.
Each of the keepers will be staying in China with them for about a week to ease their transitions. Keepers have already been assigned for them in China and are anxiously awaiting for their arrival.
They will each be kept in a special transportation crate, built by FedEx of steel bars and clear plastic, that is about eight feet long, four feet wide and five feet high. Plenty of bamboo, fruit and water will be with them during their journey.
FedEx will be taking them nonstop from Washington to Chengdu and should take 14 ½ hours. It will be 8,642-mile airplane journey taking them out over the Atlantic Ocean, across northern Europe and Russia, and on to Chengdu, China, said Ed Coleman, a spokesmen for FedEx, which is donating the flight and other logistical services.
The aircraft -- capable of holding 300 people when configured for human passengers -- will be mostly empty, with the pandas and people occupying only the front quarter of the aircraft. The plane cruises at 39,000 feet and 630 mph.
The pandas will be in a heated, pressurized cargo compartment behind the passengers, and the keepers and veterinarians will have easy access to the animals.
Officials said the long trip requires four pilots on board, working in two-person shifts. In addition to the zoo staff, veterinarians and a FedEx load master will be along.
Arrival is set for the afternoon of Feb. 5. Once in Chengdu, Tai Shan will be taken by truck on a 2 1/2 -hour drive to the Bifengxia Panda Base just outside the city of Ya'an. Mei Lan will be going to the Chengdu Panda Base which is not far from the airport and both will undergo a 30 day quarantine.
Good luck to both Mei and Tai, I look forward to seeing you both again one day in China.
Sources for the information on this post were AFP and the Washington Post. Thank You to daniel.techie and bob2cleo who have provided the wonderful photos over the years of Tai Shan and Mei Lan. We have really appreciated the time and effort you have taken to get to the zoo and capture them with your photos and then returned home to upload them so that we could experience their lives through your eyes.
As a side note, I will have new information concerning Su Lin of the San Diego Zoo on whether she will or will not be going to China, coming up in a day or two.
