THE PANDAS HAVE LANDED
The long-awaited arrival of four giant pandas took place Friday. They’ll be kept in quarantine at the Calgary Zoo’s Panda Passage until May 7, when they go on display.
A smorgasbord of bamboo has been laid out for the grand arrival of a quartet of giant pandas and the start of a five-year stay at the Calgary Zoo.
A police escort whisked the four celebrity mammals to the zoo after their mid-afternoon touchdown, where the pandas — fresh from a five-year stay in Toronto — will go into quarantine until their public coming out on May 7.
“Everything ’s been going swimmingly well,” said zoo spokeswoman Trish Exton-Parder.
One of the most painstaking tasks already at hand is ensuring the two adult pandas and their offspring are greeted with the proper food to meet their finicky tastes, she said.
“They each like different kinds of bamboo; there are nine different varieties we’ll be getting,” said Exton-Parder, adding there’ll be two flights a week from China bearing the panda chow.
“They’re well supplied for a while — there’s a giant cooler that keeps it all fresh.”
On Friday, Calgary Zoo officials were tight-lipped about the bears’ three-hour flight from Toronto and arrival details. They’re being kept inside the $14-million Panda Passage complex, where they will spend their entire time in Calgary.
It’s a convenient set up for adults Da Mao and Er Shun and made-in-Toronto cubs Jia Yueyue (Canadian Joy) and Jia Panpan (Canadian Hope), said Exton-Parder.
“It’s great not to have them at an off-site location,” she said.
“They’ll have all the time to be comfortable without visitors, and one of their keepers from Toronto will be there for the first week, so there’ll be some familiarity.”
The zoo has also recruited Calgary native and experienced panda-caregiver Cissy Kou to oversee the marquee guests.
There’s considerable confidence, said Exton-Parder, that their new spacious, lush and waterfall-laden digs will make the four feel quickly at home.
It’s been 30 years since the zoo hosted giant pandas, and that duo’s 1988 visit lasted just seven months.
It’s expected youngsters Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue will go back to China after 1 1/2 years, setting the stage for a breeding attempt to be made with female Er Shun.
With her limited reproductive window, experts from China will be on hand to help facilitate a pregnancy through artificial insemination, said Exton-Parder.
“We’re hoping we’ll have the same success Toronto has had,” she said.
The zoo expects the giant pandas will fuel a 25 per cent increase in attendance in the first year and generate an economic impact of $18 million. “The money went back to conservation in 1988, and it’ll go to conservation again,” said ExtonParder.
But the pandas’ presence will also highlight the plight of other at-risk or threatened species, some of them in Canada, she added.