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Zoo pandas will cost £70k per year in bamboo shoots

Pandas will cost £70k per year in bamboo shoots
Pandas will cost £70k per year in bamboo shoots

Tian Tian arrives in Edinburgh/PA

The first pandas to arrive in Britain for nearly 20 years will cost £70,000 per year in bamboo shoots, it has been revealed.

FedExed in on a private jet this weekend, the Very Important Pandas, bought by Edinburgh Zoo, were met by a welcoming party on the red carpet, complete with a bagpipe greeting and a bamboo cake.

Tian Tian and

Pandas come to UK December 2011
Pandas come to UK December 2011

Yang Guang (translated as Sweetie and Sunshine) will be housed in separate enclosures to prevent them fighting. They will only come together for a few days each year to mate.

The pandas are due to spend 10 years at Edinburgh Zoo, which also will pay around £600,000 a year to the Chinese authorities, as part of a global conservation programme.

The pair is expected to draw an extra one million visitors to the zoo over the next decade - a 70 per cent increase on current numbers.

While there has been much excitement about their arrival, conservationists have criticised the zoo for its commercial interests. A spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told the Daily Telegraph: "If the zoo were serious about helping pandas, they would be asking the public to donate to schemes that protect them in their native habitats."

Interested in conservation? Check out our pick of best volunteer holidays for 2012, below!

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