Washington pandas go on show

The pandas have settled into their new home

By Jonny Dymond in Washington

Two giant pandas have gone on show at the National Zoo in Washington DC for the first time.

The two animals, Tien Tien and Mei Xiang, replace two others given to the United States by the government of China, 28 years ago.

President Clinton helped to feed the new arrivals

The terms of the current deal are perhaps a reflection of changing times.

When the original pair, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, came to the US, they were a gift from the Chinese government after President Nixon's historic journey to China.

This time around, Tien Tien and Mei Xiang have been loaned to the National Zoo in return for $10 million dollars.

Playing together

There are other differences too.

When the first pair came over they were fed a bland diet of rice gruel and milk and kept apart from each other except when the female became fertile.

Tien Tien and Mei Xiang however, will have a varied diet of fruit, bamboo and high-fibre biscuits and will enjoy each other's company from the start.

Hope for the future

The zoo hopes to learn about how pandas live so as to help them in the wild.

Once there were 100,000 pandas in China, but now there are fewer than 1,000.

The keepers of the zoo in Washington hope that their new arrivals will add to that number.