Two giant pandas, Wang Wang and Funi, will be arriving at the zoo in a few days.

Zoos SA president Heather Caddick said four-year-old Wang Wang and three-year-old Funi Are expected to attract more people to Adelaide than the Clipsal 500 V8 race and even the very glitzy and world class Formula One Grand Prix which was held in the 80s and 90s.

Mr Caddick claimed that pandas are now seen as the most loveable creatures amongst the endangered species. According to him, this is why the pair has been creating such an international media buzz.

The worldwide fascination for the panda is not difficult to understand for him: pandas are naturally very funny, which makes them absolutely adorable and cute. He admitted of being capable of watching them for hours.

The Australian arrival of Wang Wang and Funi is scheduled for Saturday. The bears will have endured a long trip all the way from their home in China’s Sichuan Province at the Panda Protection and Research Centre.

It’s been reported that the pair will be escorted by Chinese keepers and veterinarians as well as Adelaide Zoo keepers, who have been observing and befriending the animals for the past two weeks.

Other recent panda news has revealed that Ling Ping, the 6 month old panda born at Chiang Mai Zoo, is quickly becoming a TV star in Thailand. The little one now has a channel of his own in the South Asian country.

Cameras have been installed in the bear’s enclosure and a signal is transmitted to Bangkok and then relayed out by cable.

It’s been reported that the channel attracts hundreds of thousands of daily viewers.

But Ling Ping is used to fame. In September, Chiang Mai Zoo received so many visitors that it claimed a 150 percent increase in activity. The arrival of Ling Ping, created a real buzz through our Asia.

Mercedes, the polar bear, has been at Edinburgh Zoo for the last 25 years where she was living in a small enclosure.

But she is now enjoying a new and much larger four-acre enclosure located at the Highland Wildlife Park immediately outside Kingussie, in one of Britain’s coldest spots.
 
The bear, a 27-year-old sow, was rescued in Canada after it was about to be killed for repeatedly lurking into a small town, and was subsequently brought to the UK.

The bear’s name was inspired by Mercedes Benz, who funded the transportation of the large animal to the UK in 1984, and it has since been one the zoo’s most important visitor attractions.

Despite Mercedes’ popularity, animal rights groups have repeatedly argued that it had been living in cramped conditions at the Edinburg zoo, where it often walked back and forward.

Chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland David Windmill said Mercedes had been moved to the Highlands as part of a plan to put zoo animals where they are better suited.

Windmill added that Mercedes had proven to be an extremely popular animal at the zoo and seeing her go was a touching experience.

During her stay in Edinburgh, she was paired with Barney, a male bear which passed on 13 years ago. Mercedes had two cubs, Ohoto and To-Nuik, which have since been taken to other zoos abroad.

Mercedes arrived at her new home last on Thursday following a three-hour road journey in a wooden crate usually housing rhinos.

Wildlife Park official Douglas Richardson said Mercedes had gotten accustomed her new environment rapidly. He added when she arrived, she immediately began searching her indoor dens and holding pen.

Hoards of well-wishers showed up to watch Fu Long, meaning “Happy Dragon” in Mandarin, gratefully dug into his one-metre-high birthday cake at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo.

Zoo keepers had prepared a party for Fu Long, which also involved puzzles and games.

The male panda weighed at birth a mere 100 grammes (0.22 pounds), but a healthy appetite has seen him sprout to 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) in two years.

According to zoo spokeswoman Karin Kruckenfellner, the young panda eats around 20 kilogrammes of bamboo each day, making him “almost as greedy as an adult”.

“He still feeds from his mother Yang Yang once or twice a day,” she added.

The zoo’s two giant pandas, Yang Yang and Long Hui, are the parents of Fu Long.

The couple arrived in Vienna in 2003 under a loan agreement with China and became an item later.

Fu Long will bid farewell to home in Vienna in November, and will be transferred to China’s Wolong nature reserve in Sichuan province.

Coupling of panda in captivity is considered extremely difficult since most attempts fail and females have only three or four days a year of fertility. At Madrid Zoo, another panda was born in 1982 thanks to artificial insemination.

According to the Vienna zoo, less than 1,600 giant pandas still live in the wild,.

In 1984, China started a long-term panda lending program to zoos worldwide, which can command lending fees up to a million dollars per year in order to house one animal.

We would like to thank www.afp.com for quotes used in this article.