Us Born Panda Relocates to China--looking for love

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 10:16 a.m. ET Feb. 13, 2004BEIJING - She'll have to give up American cookies and get used to much cooler weather, but life in China could be worse on the eve of Valentine's Day because Hua Mei already has three prospective suitors.

Hua Mei, a giant panda born at sunny California's San Diego Zoo, arrived at her ancestral home in the chill and fog of southwestern China's mountains late on Friday to become the first panda born abroad to return to the panda homeland.

After her two-day journey from America to Sichuan province, caretakers at the Wolong Nature Reserve said they had switched on the heating and set out a pile of the freshest home-grown bamboo to welcome her back to the motherland.

Quarantine first, then courtships
The four-and-a-half-year-old, the first U.S.-born endangered panda to live more than a few hours and whose name means China-America, faces a period of adjustment.

She will be quarantined for about a month, switch to Chinese biscuits and bamboo from U.S. varieties and adapt to temperatures as low as 27 below zero.


Then, if all goes as planned, it's time to have some fun.

"We have chosen three male pandas," said Wei Rongping, a reserve official. "We hope one or two could become her boyfriend later."

She should get along just fine in Wolong's White Dragon Valley, a mountainous area 60 miles from the provincial capital, Chengdu, Wei said. "The panda is a species that can easily adjust to a new environment," he said. "It prefers cold climates to warm ones.

"Still, we built a new dormitory for her with a heating system, because Sichuan is colder than San Diego."

For a month Hua Mei will live alone in the stilted wooden hut, heated to 41 degrees Fahrenheit, with a fenced-off yard of her own.

"The door to the outside is open," said Wei. "She can decide for herself whether to go out."