DHL transports panda couple from China to Finland

SHANGHAI, China, Jan 22: DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has moved two giant pandas from Chengdu, China to Ahtari, Finland via climate neutral transportation -- the carbon emissions for the flight are offset through a climate protection project, according to Media OutReach.

The male, Huá Bào, or Pyry by its new Finnish name, aged four, and the female, Jín Bàobào, or Lumi, aged three, arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland on Jan 18 by their own charter flight.

The journey of the pandas from the Dujiangya giant panda center took them first to the Chengdu airport on Jan 17, from where they were flown 6,500 kilometres directly to Helsinki on an Iljushin 76 freighter aircraft chartered for the purpose. They were accompanied by two animal handlers and two veterinary physicians and had a supply of 120 kilograms of bamboo on board.

After the official welcoming ceremony at the airport with distinguished representatives of Finland and China, a DHL truck took them to Ahtari, some 300 km away in central Finland, where a local "panda carnival" had been arranged to welcome the long awaited new inhabitants of the zoo.