A zoo in Taiwan’s capital received a pair of red pandas endangered animals from China, in the first animal exchange in more than a decade, while tensions between both sides remain high.
The pandas, a 3-year-old male and a 2-year-old female, will remain in quarantine for a month and then acclimatize to their new home in the Taipei Zoo before being presented to the public.
The two pandas have not yet been named. The Taipei Zoo said that while the male panda immediately began exploring his new home and eating, the female panda remained cautious and preferred to observe.
Taipei last received red pandas from a zoo in China’s Fujian province in 2014, according to the Taipei Times. The animals are endemic to Chinaas well as from Nepal, Laos and Myanmar, among others.
Taipei to send white-handed gibbons to Shanghai as part of the exchange, the Taipei Times reported.
Although tensions between China and Taiwan – the self-governed island that Beijing claims as part of its territory – remain high and official contacts between the two governments are suspended, exchanges at the municipal level have continued.
