It's your final chance to see the Toronto Zoo's adorable pandas

Feb 3 2018, 12:51 am

They’ve been part of the Toronto Zoo for five years, and now it’s time for the pandas to move on.

According to the Zoo, since Da Mao and Er Shunā€™s arrival in 2013 as part of a global giant panda conservation breeding program, and with the successful birth of the first giant panda cubs born in Canada in 2015, “millions of visitors have come to see one of natureā€™s most incredible and much-loved species.”

Da Mao and Er Shun are on a ten-year loan to Canada from China on a partnership between China, Toronto and Calgary. And now, the four pandas will end their five years at the Toronto this coming March and will be moving to the Calgary Zoo where they will stay until 2023.

The Toronto Zoo says the success has been seen within the Global Giant Panda Conservation Breeding Program.

“A true indication of this collective success, the giant panda was downgraded in 2016 from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),” says the Zoo on its website. “This positive shift remains a primary goal of all species protection plans, and a significant focus of efforts and educational messaging by accredited and responsible zoological organizations globally.”

The Zoo’s Giant Panda Experience closes on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 6 pm.

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