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PANDAS

Copenhagen’s first pandas to arrive in April

Two panda bears will arrive at their new home at Copenhagen Zoo next month, after four years of preparations.

Published: 12 March 2019 06:24 CET
Copenhagen’s first pandas to arrive in April
File photo: REUTERS/Henry Romero/Ritzau Scanpix

The two Chinese pandas are scheduled to land at Copenhagen Airport on April 4th.

They are set to be welcomed with a royally-attended event following a few days of acclimatisation, Copenhagen Zoo said in a press statement on Monday.

The pandas, whose names are Mao Sun and Zing Er, are an official gift from China to Denmark. They were given to Queen Margrethe and Prince Consort Henrik during an official visit in 2014.

On April 10th, the Queen, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and a delegation of Chinese representatives will bid the black and white bears welcome at the zoo’s newly-built panda enclosure.

Crown Princess Mary, who on Monday was named as the zoo’s new protector, will also participate in the event.

The following day, guests will be able to visit the enclosure, which has been under construction for the last 18 months, and see the pandas for themselves.

READ ALSO: Iconic Copenhagen zoo elephant house to be demolished

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ANIMALS

Coronavirus: Four lions test positive at Barcelona zoo

Four lions at Barcelona Zoo, three of them older females, caught Covid-19 last month but suffered only mild symptoms and have since recovered, the Catalan animal park said.

Published: 9 December 2020 17:26 CET
Coronavirus: Four lions test positive at Barcelona zoo
File photo of lions in a zoo: AFP

Their keepers were tipped off when they noticed “mild respiratory symptoms” among three 16-year-old females and a four-year-old male, a zoo statement said.

The symptoms emerged as two of their keepers tested positive for the virus.   

“The four lions were tested with the viral antigen detection kit… and were found to be positive,” it said, indicating the diagnosis was confirmed by PCR tests.

They were immediately treated with anti-inflammatories and closely monitored under a protocol similar to that for the flu, and “responded positively”.

“At no time were the lions seen having difficultly breathing or other respiratory issues, and all symptoms disappeared within a fortnight, apart from coughing and sneezing,” the zoo said.

To avoid catching the virus, the keepers wore FFP3 masks, plexiglass visors and protective footwear, and they were lowered into the enclosure in a halter.   

The zoo also contacted “international experts such as the Bronx Zoo veterinary service in New York, the only one to have documented a case of Sars-CoV-2 infection in big cats,” it said.

In early April, a four-year-old female tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for Covid-19, likely contracting it from a keeper who was asymptomatic at the time.

Since the start of the pandemic, cats, dogs and various other animals have tested positive for Covid-19 but until now, minks are the only animals proven to both contract the virus and pass it on to humans.

Several countries have ordered the mass culling of their mink populations, notably Denmark where more than 10 million have already been killed.

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