PANDAS HEAD HOME TO CHINA AS PANDEMIC CRIMPS ZOO'S BAMBOO

The Calgary Zoo says two giant pandas were on their way home to China Friday. The zoo said in May that it would be sending the pair back early because the COVID-19 pandemic was making it difficult to source bamboo. The plant makes up 99 per cent of the animals' diet and the zoo has said it was an expensive and all-consuming effort to cobble together supplies from across North America. The zoo says on Twitter it was a difficult decision to send the pandas home three years earlier than planned. It says it took months of hard work to secure international permits to get the pandas home. The two adults, Er Shun and Da Mao, were on loan from China as part of a 10-year deal signed in 2012. They were to stay in Calgary until 2023. Two cubs were born in Toronto in 2015 and were sent to China as planned in January.