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Pambassadors' Global Tour for Panda Conservation Curtains Down in France

PARIS, France, Sept. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Three panda ambassadors, or "Pambassadors," arrived at the Beauval zoo in France Friday to visit two giant pandas, Huan Huan and Yuan Zai, putting a perfect full stop to their global tour aimed at promoting panda conservation.

French biologist Jerome Pouille, Chinese fashion magazine editor Erica Chen Yinrong and American hockey coach Melissa Katz were chosen from some 1.16 million candidates who took part in last year's global contests for the "cute job" of raising public awareness of the need to protect giant pandas, one of the most endangered animal species in the world.

The trio of ambassadors embarked on their Global Tour for the Conservation of Pandas on Aug. 23 from Hong Kong. They have visited a dozen of cities hosting pandas in the world, with highlights in Singapore, Atlanta, Washington, Edinburgh and the last destination, Beauval.

In January 2012, Huan Huan and Yuan Zai arrived at the Beauval Zoo in central France, where a China Zone was specially built in an area of 2.5 hectares as the new enclosure for the two pandas, both on loan from the Chengdu city in China's Sichuan Province, the hometown of giant pandas.

On Friday afternoon, three Pambassadors went to the enclosure to greet Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, posing to the camera with them. They also had intimate contacts with Chinese and French curators and panda lovers, exchanging ideas with them on how to keep pandas and introducing to them their findings and experiences gained from their global tour.

They were also joined by panda fans to visit the Xinhua Photo Gallery in the zoo under the theme of Pandas and Pambassadors, which helps people better understand pandas and their living habits, and informs the fans of the ways of protecting pandas and other endangered animal species as well as their habitats.  

After the global tour, the three Pambassadors will use what they have learned from the tour to work continuously for the conservation of the endangered animals. They also plan to post online photos they took so as to help more people get to know the pandas hosted in different parts of the world and how they are cared and loved by global fans.

Multimedia News Release (MNR) Link:
http://asianet.multimediarelease.com.au/bundles/29a2fcdf-c171-4bcf-8916-25ab257cece6

Source: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
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