All four giant pandas at a zoo in the Adventure World amusement park in the town of Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan left for China on Saturday morning.
The four females were in good health and behaved largely as usual, while they looked a little confused by unusual surroundings, according to a zookeeper.
At 8:45 a.m., two trucks carrying 24-year-old Rauhin and her three daughters –Yuihin, 8, Saihin, 6, and Fuhin, 4 — left the leisure facility.
A crowd of fans gathered around the zoo to see them off, taking photographs with their smartphones and waving their hands. Some people were crying.
At Adventure World, 17 pandas were born. The first one was Rauhin, born in 2000.
“We just worked hard for the 17 cubs born here, but looking back, we are all proud of this big achievement (of raising them),” Koji Imazu, head of the zoo, told reporters before the four departed. “We’d like to see all four doing well again someday.”
After their departure, the two giant pandas at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo will be the only giant pandas in the country.
All giant pandas in Japan, even those born in the country, are on loan from China for breeding research purposes. (PNA)