Beijing - Two giant pandas were scheduled to undergo health checks on Tuesday ahead of a flight to Australia, where they will live at Adelaide Zoo for 10 years, state media said. The two pandas were scheduled to leave China on Friday after they were promised to Australia under a "cooperative research programme" announced by Vice Premier Li Keqiang during a visit to Australia last month, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Wang Wang, a 4-year-old male, and Fu Ni, a 3-year-old female, were reared at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding Centre in the south-western province of Sichuan.
Chinese experts had trained Australian veterinarians and keepers, and the Australian side had planted 10 hectares of special bamboo to feed the pandas, the agency quoted Zhang Hemin, the head of China's main panda breeding centre at the nearby Wolong reserve, as saying.
Wang Wang means "net" in Chinese, while Fu Ni means "lucky girl."
They were transferred to the Bifengxia centre after last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake, which killed more than 80,000 people and caused extensive damage at the Wolong panda breeding centre, Zhang said.
More than 180 giant pandas live in captivity around the world, and about 1,590 remain in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, according to Chinese government statistics.
The animals are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate.
