Overview
- The 17-year-old pair left the ZooParc de Beauval before dawn Tuesday under police escort for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and a climate-controlled flight to Chengdu.
- Their return was advanced from 2027 due to Huan Huan’s renal insufficiency, a condition the zoo says is common at this age.
- The journey covers roughly 9,000 kilometers and about ten to twelve hours, with the pandas traveling in custom crates with 180 kilograms of fresh bamboo, water and veterinary oversight.
- Their twin daughters born in 2021, Huanlili and Yuandudu, will remain at Beauval at least until January 2027.
- At Roissy, Chinese embassy chargé d’affaires Chen Dong pledged future panda placements in France as French minister Mathieu Lefèvre joined the farewell.