A "couple" of giant pandas left China's southwestern Sichuan Province on board a special plane for Thailand Sunday afternoon.

Chuang Chuang, a male panda, and Lin Hui, a female panda, both of the China Giant Panda Research Center based in Wolong of Sichuan, will live in Thailand for 10 years.

Chuang Chuang, 4, weighs 106 kilograms and Lin Hui, 3, weighs 65 kilograms.

Chen Ruisheng, secretary general of the China Wildlife Conservation Association, said giant pandas used to live in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, but the rare creatures became extinct in these countries.

The two giant pandas will live in a zoo in Ban Chiang Mai, and Chinese and Thai researchers will study their reproduction and behavior.

Any offspring will belong to China.

The Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, the largest habitat for giant pandas in China, is now home to 67 pandas above the age of six months.

There are about 1,000 wild pandas left in the wild, mainly living in the mountains surrounding the Sichuan Basin, southwest China. The number of pandas in captivity worldwide stands at around 100.

(China Daily October 13, 2003)