Da Mao, a 4-year-old male from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan, and Er Shun, a 5-year-old female from Chongqing Zoo, will stay in Canada for 10 years under a conservation agreement between the two countries. "The duo will spend five years at Toronto Zoo followed immediately by another five years at Calgary Zoo,” said Zhang Zhihe, chief of the Chengdu panda base. Zhang said visitors to Toronto Zoo will be able to see the two pandas after a monthlong quarantine. "The program will allow the Toronto and Calgary zoos to contribute to ongoing international efforts to increase the population of endangered giant pandas. Currently, fewer than 2,000 pandas remain in the wild,” he said. Toronto and Calgary have waited for about 20 years to see pandas at their zoos again. The Chinese tradition of sending the animals overseas dates to when the Empress Wu Zetian gave pandas to the Japanese emperor in 658.
