FedEx : Panda Family Arrives in Calgary for New Exhibit

April 26, 2018

There's a new family in Calgary, and they'll likely be some of the most popular residents in Alberta, Canada!

Meet the pandas - Er Shun, Da Mao and cubs Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue.

In 2013, FedEx moved Er Shun and Da Mao from China to Canada as part of a global giant panda conservation breeding program. The pandas stayed at the Toronto Zoo for five years, during which time Er Shun gave birth to the first giant panda cubs ever born in Canada, a boy, Jia Panpan and a girl, Jia Yueyue. FedEx then moved the entire family to the Calgary Zoo for their next five-year adventure.

Any panda cubs born in the program must return to China before they are four years old, so Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue will head to China before 2023. But for now, the entire family of four is getting used to their new home, Panda Passage, opening to the public in May 2018 at the Calgary Zoo.

Dr. Clément Lanthier, President and CEO of Calgary Zoo, is excited to have this new addition to the Calgary Zoo family, 'Hosting these international symbols of wildlife conservation over the next five years gives us the chance to educate our community about helping protect species at risk, here in Canada and around the world.'

Giant pandas are listed as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are only an estimated 1,800 in the wild.

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