SO LONG, YOUNG PANDAS
Male Jia Panpan, left, and female Jia Yueyue snack on bamboo after waking up from a nap at the Calgary Zoo on Friday. This month the young pandas are going to China after an extended stay in the city. They were born at the Toronto Zoo in 2015.
Two giant panda siblings are now spending their last days in Calgary before heading to China.
On Monday, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue were making the most of their dwindling time at the Calgary Zoo, despite the frosty temperatures, said spokeswoman Alison Archambault.
“They’re looking great; they must know the real cold weather is coming soon because they’ve been running around outside,” she said.
Zoo officials won’t say exactly when the four-year-old male Jia Panpan and his sister Jia Yueyue will depart as part of a loan agreement between China and Canada, but it will be sometime this month.
Their stay in Calgary was extended a few months but when they go to Asia, they’ll be sent to a research facility in Chengdu, China.
“We won’t be providing any information on that, just for human and animal safety,” said Archambault.
She noted Calgarians were given a chance to say goodbye to the pair during festivities in October.
The pact that brought their mother, Er Shun, and male panda Da Mao to Canada in 2013 led to the twin cubs being born in the Toronto Zoo in Oct. 13, 2015.
The four pandas arrived in Calgary
in May 2018 and the two older animals will return to China in 2023 following a 10-year stay in Canada.
A new $14-million enclosure dubbed Panda Passage was built for the quartet, which has proved a massive draw for the Calgary Zoo.
Attempts to impregnate Er Shun through artificial insemination at the Calgary Zoo have yet to be successful, noted Archambault, who cited last year’s bid.
“That can only be attempted once a year, so we can’t try it again until the spring,” she said.