Panda poised for new life in Sichuan

A special Boeing 777 Freighter provided by FedEx was flying the panda and two of the zoo's staff members－a panda keeper and a veterinarian－nonstop from Washington to Chengdu.

They will continuously monitor Bei Bei during the trip and he will travel with a supply of his favorite treats, including bamboo, apples, pears, carrots, cooked sweet potatoes, biscuits and water, the zoo statement said.

The China Conservation and Research Center Base for the Giant Panda is home to 312 of the world's 600 captive pandas, the largest such population in the world.

Pandas are native to the southwestern province of Sichuan and to Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in the northwest.

According to the 2019 Annual Conference of the Chinese Committee of Giant Panda Breeding Techniques, held last week in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, there are more than 1,300 wild pandas in the province, accounting for 75 percent of the national total.

In 1980, an agreement between the World Wide Fund for Nature and the government led to the establishment of the China Conservation and Research Base for the Giant Panda at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Wenchuan county, Sichuan.

With bases at Hetaoping and Shenshuping in the nature reserve, another at Bifengxia, Ya'an, and one at the foot of Mount Qingcheng in Dujiangyan－all in Sichuan－the center is the world's largest panda conservation and research organization.