Female panda Er Shun eats bamboo at the Panda House at the Chongqing Zoo in Chongqing, China earlier this year. The Toronto Zoo began playing host to Er Shun and male Da Mao on Monday, just over a year were officially loaned to Canada by the Chinese government.
Two giant pandas arrived at Pearson International Airport on Monday following a 24-hour flight from China. They are set to take up a five-year residency at the Toronto Zoo. After that, Er Shun, a five-year-old female, and Da Mao, a four-year-old male, will spend years in Calgary, Alberta.
The pandas were greeted by dignitaries, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his wife, Laureen, and Zhang Junsai, the Chinese ambassador to Canada. They are the first pandas to come to Canada in nearly 25 years.
The Toronto Zoo has built a 1,300-square-metre giant panda exhibit. It has not said when the bears will be ready to be seen by the public. The exhibit includes a pool, caves and climbing structures. The pandas are expected to attract an extra 300,000 visitors this year to the zoo.
Er Shun and Da Mao arrived in a specially modified FedEx Express Canada MD11 aircraft, branded with a picture of a panda. Customized enclosures had been built to accommodate them on the airplane, which stocked 50 kilograms of apples and 200 kilograms of bamboo. The pandas were put in quarantine immediately.
Officials are hoping the pandas become more than friends during their stay and that they will breed.
The pandas are viewed as giant step forward in Canada’s relationship with China. Trade between the two countries has doubled over the past eight years.
Last year, Mr. Harper concluded a visit to China last year by announcing the panda loan, noting that the relationship between Canada and China had moved to a “totally new level.”