Rodolphe Delord, left, Director of ZooParc De Beauval, and his sister, right, look at one of the two giant pandas loaned to the zoo at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu city, southwest Chinas Sichuan province, 11 January 2012. A pair of giant pandas from Chinas Shichuan province will board a chartered plane coming Sunday (15 January 2012), embarking on a journey across half the globe to Paris, Xinhua reported Tuesday. According to Hou Rong, an expert with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, France and China have agreed upon a deal that will see the pair staying in a French zoo for 10 years under a conservation and research programme. Both the pandas, Yuan Zai and Huan Huan, were born in 2008. They weigh 81 and 79 kg, respectively, said Hou. The duo will stay in ZooParc De Beauval in Saint-Aignan, central France, enabling the staff to study panda breeding as well as about training the endangered species before reintroducing them into the wild, Hou said.
