Beijing’s strained relations with the west are less easily mollified by loans of cuddly endangered bears

Three giant pandas left their enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and departed by plane back to China on Wednesday, marking<a class="excerpt-read-more" href=" More

To help the pandas on their journey home, some new plans have been put in place by Edinburgh Zoo. "There's a whole lot of logistics that have to happen,'' says Darren McGarry, who is the head of living collections at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS),

A Boeing 777 cargo plane, operated by China Southern, will carry them on the journey home. The pandas will travel in two bespoke metal crates, with sliding padlock doors, pee trays and removable screens so keepers can check on them during the flight.

The UK’s only giant pandas will depart for China on Monday after spending 12 years in Scotland. Yang Guang and Tian Tian came to Edinburgh Zoo in 2011 as part of a 10-year agreement between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the China Wildlife Conservation Association,