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Taipei Zoo welcomes a pair of red pandas from China, first in over a decade

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A zoo in Taiwan’s capital received a pair of endangered red pandas from China on Saturday, in the first exchange of animals in more than a decade as tensions between the two sides run high.

The pandas, a 3-year-old male and a 2-year-old female, will be in quarantine for a month and then acclimated to their new home in the Taipei Zoo before they are unveiled to the public.

The two pandas have yet to be named. While the male panda immediately began to explore his new home and ate, the female remained cautious and preferred to observe, the Taipei Zoo said.

Taipei last received red pandas from a zoo in China’s Fujian province in 2014, according to the Taipei Times. The animals are endemic to China, as well as Nepal, Laos and Myanmar, among others.

Taipei will send white-handed gibbons to Shanghai as part of the exchange, the Taipei Times said.

While tensions between China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as part of its territory, remain high and official contacts between the two governments are cut off, city-level exchanges have continued.

Here’s what to know about Timmy, the humpback whale whose life and death captivated Germany

BERLIN (AP) — The remains of Timmy, the humpback whale whose life and death captivated Germany for months, will be turned into biodiesel as some of the mammal's bones are set to go to a Danish museum. A series of failed rescue attempts split the scientific community and a private initiative over whether it was more humane to let the weakened and sick animal die on its own or continue the efforts. The whale, nicknamed “Timmy” and “Hope” by German media, was found dead on May 14, stranded just off the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, the broad strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. Here's what to know:
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