It’s been a long journey for a panda called Fuhu, and it may be too early to tell whether he’s happy to be back in the land of his ancestors. On Thursday afternoon, this Austrian born panda was flown to the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, the homeland to all giant pandas.
Maybe it was the crowds waving disembodied panda heads or maybe it was just cold feet before meeting the female pandas at the breeding center, but Fuhu didn’t seem too happy to be there. It took breeders two hours to get him out of his cage and into the quarantine room, luring him with his favorite foods—an apple.
Fuhu—whose name means “lucky tiger”—has been put in a hut next to his brother. Fulong was also born in Austria but made the trip to China in November 2009. With Fuhu, the number of overseas-born pandas sent to the center has reached 7. The potential for love triangles—rife.
