Chinese giant panda Yang Guang - Sunshine in English - enjoys a piece of cake at meal time.
Male panda Yang Guang together with his shyer female counterpart Tian Tian - or Sweetie in English - are getting ready to leave their home in this Chinese reserve for a zoo in Scotland.
The bamboo-loving eight-year-old pair are currently kept separate to avoid them fighting or mating.
Their trainer, who has known them both since they were young, will accompany them on their journey.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) YA'AN BIFENGXIA PANDA CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH CENTRE KEEPER XIE HAO, SAYING:
"Tian Tian is a female panda, so she is relatively shy and much more aware of her surroundings, so perhaps she will need longer to acclimatise to the new environment. Yang Guang is livelier, likes to be close to people, and is used to having lots of people around. He may get used to it faster."
Scotland's cold wet climate is apparently well-suited to animals native to this part of China.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang will remain in Scotland for ten years after which they and any young they have will return home to China.
The exchange is the culmination of five years of negotiations between China and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland - and the beginning of a cooperative research project.
Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed because females ovulate just once a year and can only become pregnant during a two-to-three day period.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters
Male panda Yang Guang together with his shyer female counterpart Tian Tian - or Sweetie in English - are getting ready to leave their home in this Chinese reserve for a zoo in Scotland.
The bamboo-loving eight-year-old pair are currently kept separate to avoid them fighting or mating.
Their trainer, who has known them both since they were young, will accompany them on their journey.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) YA'AN BIFENGXIA PANDA CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH CENTRE KEEPER XIE HAO, SAYING:
"Tian Tian is a female panda, so she is relatively shy and much more aware of her surroundings, so perhaps she will need longer to acclimatise to the new environment. Yang Guang is livelier, likes to be close to people, and is used to having lots of people around. He may get used to it faster."
Scotland's cold wet climate is apparently well-suited to animals native to this part of China.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang will remain in Scotland for ten years after which they and any young they have will return home to China.
The exchange is the culmination of five years of negotiations between China and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland - and the beginning of a cooperative research project.
Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed because females ovulate just once a year and can only become pregnant during a two-to-three day period.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters
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