Female panda Er Shun eats bamboo at the Panda House at the Chongqing Zoo in Chongqing, China on February 11, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
May 16, 2013 - 1:00 AM
TORONTO - A pair of giant pandas on loan from China will make their debut at the Toronto Zoo for some invitation-only visitors today, before they go on public display tomorrow.
The preview is for zoo members and the media.
The pandas arrived in Canada in March on a special flight from China.
Five-year-old Er Shun and her prospective mate, four-year-old Da Mao, will spend five years at the Toronto Zoo.
They will then be moved to the Calgary Zoo, which has announced a major redesign to house the new visitors.
The Toronto and Calgary Zoos played host to pandas in 1985 and 1988, respectively, while another couple took up a brief residence at the Winnipeg Zoo in 1989.
China's loan of the pandas to Canada sends an important diplomatic message that ties between the two countries are stable and continue to grow stronger.
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News from © The Canadian Press, 2013