Giant pandas

Visitors to the Edinburgh Zoo had their final chance to see and bid farewell on Nov. 30 to a pair of popular giant pandas who are returning home to China after more than a decade in Scotland.

The first giant panda to have been born in France received an emotional send-off on July 25 as he left his French zoo ahead of the long haul flight back to his ancestral China.

Ya Ya the giant panda began its trip to China on April 26 from the Memphis Zoo, where it has spent the past 20 years as part of a loan agreement.

The zoo said Ya Ya was being accompanied on its return to China by a veterinarian who will manage the panda's medical needs and a zoological officer who will handle all husbandry requirements.

The discovery of panda fossils in China has helped researchers solve the mystery of how the giant species developed a "false thumb" and became the only dedicated vegetarian in the bear family.

Fossils dating back about six million years found in southwest China's Yunnan province included a greatly enlarged wrist bone called a radial sesamoid.

 The eldest of three giant pandas at San Diego Zoo, Gao Gao left on Tuesday morning to return to China, where he was born.

The departure concludes a long-term loan from China to the zoo. By all accounts, it was a highly successful one. Along with matriarch Bai Yun, he produced five cubs, the youngest of which, Xiao Liwu, remains behind with his mother.

The year of 2016 is about to come to an end. It was a year of full of tragedy, suffering and conflict. But it also had moments of hope and inspiration. From the U.S. presidential town hall debate to the Rio Olympics – the award-winning photographers of Reuters have really captured it all.

China has put on display the latest twin pandas born through artificial insemination as part of efforts to boost the numbers of its unofficial national mascot.
     
Still mostly hairless and with their eyes yet to open, the sisters were met by adoring fans at a breeding center in the southwestern city of Chengdu on June 23.
     

China's population of wild giant pandas jumped nearly 17 percent over a decade, state media reported, citing an official survey, with conservation measures credited as being behind the increase.