Two giant pandas were welcomed like heads of state when they arrived in Spain from China on Saturday to begin a new life in an air-conditioned pagoda and custom-built gardens at Madrid zoo.
MADRID (Reuters) - Two giant pandas were welcomed like heads of state when they arrived in Spain from China on Saturday to begin a new life in an air-conditioned pagoda and custom-built gardens at Madrid zoo.
Seven-year-old male Bing Xing and 3-year-old female Huz Zui Ba were whisked through an area usually reserved for presidents and diplomats at Madrid airport before heading to the zoo in an air-conditioned truck, escorted by paramilitary police.
The pandas, which risk extinction in their native mountains and bamboo forests, are on loan to Spain as a goodwill gesture by the Chinese government. It is hoped they will breed.
The shy creatures are expected to draw tens of thousands of extra visitors to Madrid zoo, where they replace Chu Lin -- the first panda born in captivity in Europe -- who died in 1996 aged 14.
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