JAKARTA - Two giant pandas sent to Qatar as gifts from China ahead of the World Cup have arrived in the Gulf country.
The pandas will be placed in cages designed to mimic the dense forests of China's Sichuan mountain province, where they live.
Eight hundred kilograms of fresh bamboo will be flown each week to feed them.
Interestingly, these pandas are named new Arabs before traveling to Qatar.
The 130 kilogram male Panda, previously known as Jing Jing, now has the name Suhail. While the female Si Hai, who weighs 70 kilograms, is named Soraya.
They will undergo 21 days of quarantine with two guards after their arrival, said Al Khor's director of zoomology, Tim Bouts.
"In a few weeks, or within one month, they will be ready to be shown to the world," he said, launching The National News October 20.
Authorities have not said whether the new Panda House will be ready by the time the World Cup begins.
Qatar expects 1.2 million visitors to the FIFA World Cup for a month starting on November 20. The gas-rich Gulf state will be the first Arab country to host the world's biggest sporting event.
"There is a lot of thought into this building to make it, in my opinion, the best building for pandas in the world," Bouts said.
Panda is one of the most threatened species in the world, rarely proliferating in the wild. They rely on bamboo food in the mountains of western China.
It is known, an estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild. While the other 500 are in zoos or nature reserves, most of them are in Sichuan.
They are China's unofficial national mascot, which has awarded pandas to 20 countries.
China's Ambassador to Qatar, Zhou Jian, said the two pandas "will live happily here and bring more happiness, joy and love to the Qatari people and the world".
First glimpse of Chinese giant panda getting to know their new home in Qatar!#PandainQatar pic.twitter.com/mkmNzTv83R
— Zhou Jian (@AmbZhouJian) October 19, 2022
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