Chinese Pandas arrive in Qatar

Doha:  Ahead of Fifa World Cup, China gifted a pair of giant pandas to Qatar. Qatar became the first Middle Eastern country who has received two giant pandas from China on Wednesday. They will reside in luxury air-conditioned quarters. 

Fresh 1800 pounds of bamboo will arrive every week to feed them. A 4-year-old male panda named Jing Jang has been given the Arabic name Suhail and weighs 120 kilograms. Whereas the 3-years- old female panda Si Hai has been given the Arabic name Thuraya and weighs 70 kilograms.

The pandas will be kept in quarantine for at least 21 days with two keepers before visitors could see them, Al Khor’s zoological director Time Bouts. “In a few weeks, or in a month’s time, they will be ready to be shown to the world,” Tim added.

Crowds of children were present at Al Khor park which is 50 kilometers away from Doha to see the pandas. 

The animals are sent as a gift by the Chinese government for World Cup that is starting on 20th November. Almost 1.2 million visitors are expected for the month-long event. It will be the world’s first Arabic country to host the world’s biggest sports event.

Bouts said the enclosure will not only provide the perfect indoor climate for the pandas, but will also protect them from disturbing noises while interacting with the visitors. “There was a lot of thinking which went into this building to make it, I think, the best building for pandas in the world,” he said.

Pandas that are fed bamboos only in the mountains of northern China and rarely reproduce are the most threatened species in the world. Almost 1,800 pandas live in the woods, whereas 500 are in zoos or reserves, mostly in Sichuan.

China’s ambassador to Qatar, Zhou Jian, said, “The two pandas will live a happy life here and bring more happiness, joy and a love to the people of Qatar and in this world.”