Austrian-born panda arrives a 'happy tiger'
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E-mail China Daily, November 9, 2012
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Fuhu, a 2-year-old male panda, returns to his homeland, accompanied by personnel at the Bifengxia Base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan province on Thursday. Fuhu was born at the Vienna Zoo in Austria. [China Daily] |
He returned to the Bifengxia Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at about 5:30 pm. After a brief welcoming ceremony, he started a month-long quarantine in his new den in the base. He is expected to meet visitors in one month, said Tang Chunxiang, assistant to the director of the center.
Fuhu, which literally means "Happy Tiger" in Chinese, bid farewell to his birthplace in Vienna on Tuesday. He traveled to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by road, before getting on a plane at 20:45 pm on Wednesday and landing at Shuangliu International Airport in Chengdu, Sichuan province, at 1:30 pm on Thursday.
Born in August 2010, Fuhu is the second cub of the Chinese panda pair Yangyang and Longhui, who were transferred from China to the Vienna Zoo in 2003, and are on loan to Austria from China for 10 years with the understanding that their offspring would be returned to their homeland at the age of 2.
Like his 5-year-old brother, Fulong (meaning "Happy Dragon" in Chinese), who returned to the center three years ago, Fuhu was conceived and born naturally, although artificial insemination is a common practice when breeding captive pandas.
To facilitate Fuhu's safe return, the Vienna Zoo started training him last month in a small cage that the keeper shook from time to time to simulate in-flight turbulence.
Fuhu, who weighed 100 grams at birth, now weighs over 50 kg, about half the normal weight of an adult panda. His primary caretaker, Renate Haider, accompanied the panda to the Bifengxia Base together with Dagmar Schratter, director of the Vienna Zoo.
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