China to loan two pandas to Singapore for 10-year period
By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 11 November 2009 2052 hrs

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SINGAPORE : China will be loaning two baby pandas to Singapore for a 10-year period, as part of a collaboration between the China Wildlife Conservation Association and Wildlife Reserves Singapore to mark the 20th anniversary of Sino-Singapore relations.

According to Wildlife Reserves, Singapore will be the 7th country to get these animals on loan - after the US, Japan, Austria, Australia, Spain and Thailand.

There are only 1,600 pandas in the world, of which 268 are in captivity, with only 30 of these outside China.

But Singaporeans will not get to see these pandas so soon. They will arrive in the second half of 2011, but they will have to be quarantined for a month, and there will be a further 5 months of acclimatisation.

The baby pandas will be housed in the zoo's new attraction, the River Safari, and visitors will probably get their first glimpse of them in the first quarter of 2012.

The pandas will be located in a special area to be constructed - a 1,600 sq-metre climate-controlled enclosure that is fully air-conditioned with temperatures set between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius and humidity controlled at 50-60 per cent all year round.

Ambient conditions will be adjusted to simulate the 4 seasons similar to their natural habitat.

Since the pandas' diet consists mainly of bamboo - they consume some 20 kilogrammes a day - the zoo will be planting 8,000 sq metres of bamboo plantation to cater for this.

Property firm CapitaLand will be adopting the pandas with what it called a significant donation over the 10-year period.

This is not the first time Singaporeans will see pandas here. The city-state had a pair on loan for 100 days in 1990. - CNA /ls