China has sent a pair of unique gifts to Qatar, a month ahead of the Fifa World Cup scheduled to be held at the Gulf country.
The gifts are a pair of giant pandas named Thuraya and Suhail who arrived from the southwestern Sichuan province in China on a special flight from Beijing on Wednesday.
The pandas are a part of a cooperation programme on the research and conservation of the animals between the two countries, local media reported.
The two animals are accompanied by a team of experienced breeders and veterinarians who will help them settle down in their new home, designed to replicate the conditions of their native forest in China.
Dong Li, a breeder accompanying the two pandas, had earlier said that the team had steamed cornbread, bamboo shoots, carrots and other foods for giant pandas in case they needed them for the journey before they arrived in Qatar.
It was reported that 800kg of fresh bamboo will be flown into Qatar each week to feed them.
The two animals, who were previously known by the names of Jing Jing and Si Hat, were given their new Arabic names before their arrival in the gulf country.
Suhail, a four-year-old male, weighs 120kg while three-year-old female Thuraya weighs 70kg.
This is the first giant panda cooperation programme between China and the Middle East, according to state-controlled Xinhua News. It follows a cooperation agreement signed in May 2020 between Beijing and Doha.
Doha’s ambassador to China, Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Duhaimi, said the gift “symbolises the depth of relations between the two countries”.
“The pandas are also taking China’s best wishes to a successful [Qatar 2022] World Cup,” tweeted Zhou Jian, China’s ambassador to Qatar.
Local media said the two gifted giant pandas will quarantine for 21 days before visitors will be allowed to see them.
Qatar is hosting the Fifa World Cup from 20 November to 18 December this year. The country is expecting some 1.2 million visitors during this time.
Meanwhile, Tim Bouts, the director of Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation, where Thuraya and Suhail have been kept after their arrival, said in addition to providing the perfect indoor climate for the pandas, the enclosure will also shield them from stressful noises while allowing them to interact with 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.
China has gifted giant pandas to at least 20 countries. The giant panda has been used by Beijing in what is termed as “panda diplomacy”.
The trend began when China presented the then-Soviet Union with the panda Ping Ping in 1957. However, the government stopped gifting them in 1982 and instead began to loan them out. The rented animals remain the property of China, along with their offspring.
Thuraya and Suhail will remain in the newly built Panda House Garden at Al-Khor Zoo near Doha for 15 years.
Mr Zhou said the two pandas “will live a happy life here and bring more happiness, joy and love to the people of Qatar and in this world”.
