A number of foreign animal keepers have come to China to learn how to feed giant pandas, an animal unique to China, as more pandas have been loaned to other countries for cooperative research on their reproduction.

Brenda Vah and Marga Gerritsen are panda keepers from the Netherlands, who are spending one month to study panda keeping at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

They started by learning to cook meals for pandas.

"Especially the young one here. This is the first time for us to see a young one and to come so close," said Brenda Vah.

"For us, it is very important to be here, because we worked with a lot of animals, also bears, but not with Chinese pandas, we are welcome here to learn, from the people who know everything about pandas, so we become a very good keeper at home in the Netherlands, and we really want to thank everybody for this opportunity," said Marga Gerritsen.

China has carried out cooperation projects on giant pandas with 12 zoos in 10 countries over the past 20 years, and loaned more than 30 pandas overseas.

The two pandas loaned to the Netherlands are accommodated by the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen.

"Every spring and autumn, this international institution that has cooperation with us would send their keepers or nurses here to learn with us at this center, about things like artificial insemination. On the other hands, they wish that we could send experts to their county to offer instruction when our pandas in their country go into heat or are about to deliver babies," said Li Desheng, expert with the center.

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