The Giant Panda is a magnificent and very striking black and white bear that is indigenous only to the central western and southwestern parts of China. It is also a very endangered species due to habitat destruction and also low birth rate. In the wild pandas tend to live solitary lives and pair up only for breeding. Their diet consists of 99% bamboo in the wild but in captivity they are fed honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves,etc. along with special food. Currently there are only around 239 pandas living in captivity in China and 27 living outside of China. Approximately only about 1500 are currently in the wild.

China has sent Pandas throughout the years to zoos in others countries on loan for a breeding program to help preserve this species. This weekend two of China's Giant Pandas from the Ya’an Reserve went to their new home in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were the first Giant Pandas to arrive in the U.K. in 17 years but they did not come with out much planning and a great cost in loan fees - almost $10 million (U.S.dollars). Their 9 hour trip was over 5,000 miles from China only to end up living their lives in a cold, damp environment in separate enclosures for most of the year. The two will be introduced to each other in February or March for the breeding season. They are being called Tian Tian (Sweetie) who is the female and Yang Guang (Sunshine) who is the male.

This was no easy spur of the moment decision or move either. It took years of planning to arrange the logistics so that it would be a smooth operation. The flight which which was flown by FedEx Express took 21 months of co-ordination with three teams of specialists in three countries. Their travel enclosures were flown from Memphis, Tenn. and the bears were gradually introduced to them in the lead-up to their departure. Once on board, in addition to the flight crew, there was a load master – who had responsibility for ensuring the animals were safe and secure – two attendants and a veterinarian to monitor the animals during the flight.

Now that they are settling into their new homes it has been reported that both bears are doing very well. They are sleeping for several hours at a time and eating lightly while their bodie's readjust to the time difference. While this is all very good news for the bears and great care was taken to move them, the question still remains whether it was appropriate to spend almost $10 million dollars in loan fees to China or was this just too extravagant an endeavor in these times of economic uncertainty? The 8 yr. old bears will be there on loan for 10 years, that's $1 million dollars per year. Scotland however, feels the huge cost is worth the price of friendship they can form with China in the long run - for future economic gain.