10 giant pandas to go to Shanghai for World Expo 2010

SHANGHAI, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Ten giant pandas will go to Shanghai, host of the 2010 World Expo, for a year-long display next year, the municipal information office said Thursday.

The pandas, six females and four males, include two twins, said Li Desheng, deputy director of the Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau.

They were all born in the Ya'an Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base in the southwestern province of Sichuan after the deadly Wenchuan earthquake on May 12 2008, Li said.

The group will fly to Shanghai in a chartered plane early next year, the office said. They will go on display in the Shanghai Zoo in the first half of 2010 and on display in the Shanghai Wildlife Zoo in the second half.

The zoos have built new or renovated existing exhibition areas and established bamboo supply bases to ensure sufficient food for the pandas, said Cai Youming, deputy head of the Shanghai municipal forestry bureau.

Giant pandas, known for being sexually inactive, are among the world's most endangered animals due to shrinking habitat.

There are about 1,600 giant pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.

China has built 62 giant panda nature reserves that cover 3.2 million hectares and are home to 70 percent of the animals in wild, according to the State Forestry Administration.