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China to Replace Australia's Popular Giant Pandas

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Wang Wang the panda chews a box as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and China's Premier Li Qiang listen to a Zoo ranger at Adelaide Zoo on June 16, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. Asanka Ratnayake/Pool via REUTERS
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Wang Wang the panda chews a box as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and China's Premier Li Qiang listen to a Zoo ranger at Adelaide Zoo on June 16, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. Asanka Ratnayake/Pool via REUTERS
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China to Replace Australia's Popular Giant Pandas

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Wang Wang the panda chews a box as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and China's Premier Li Qiang listen to a Zoo ranger at Adelaide Zoo on June 16, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. Asanka Ratnayake/Pool via REUTERS
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Wang Wang the panda chews a box as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and China's Premier Li Qiang listen to a Zoo ranger at Adelaide Zoo on June 16, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. Asanka Ratnayake/Pool via REUTERS

China will loan Australia new "adorable" giant pandas to replace a popular pair that failed to produce offspring in more than a decade together, visiting Premier Li Qiang announced Sunday.

Adelaide Zoo has been home to Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009 when they were loaned by China as part of a global preservation scheme that also serves as a tool of "panda diplomacy".

Breeding panda cubs is a notoriously difficult task for the low-sexed creatures and hopes of a pregnancy in Adelaide, including through the use of artificial insemination, have been repeatedly dashed.

As one of the furry giants played with a strip of tree in the background, Li delivered the news that they will be going home.

"Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been away from home for 15 years -- I guess they must have missed their home a lot -- so they will return to China before the end of the year," the premier said, according to Agence France Presse.

"But what I can tell you is that we will provide a new pair of equally beautiful, lovely and adorable pandas as soon as possible."

China would provide Australia with candidates to choose from, said Li, who landed in Adelaide on Saturday on a four-day fence-mending trip after Beijing withdrew a string of trade sanctions on major Australian exports.

The announcement is a nod to Foreign Minister Penny Wong's efforts to stabilize Australia's relationship with China, following a diplomatic rift with the former conservative government.

Li said he remembered the Australian foreign minister had twice reminded him during a visit to Beijing last November that the panda loan agreement would expire later this year.

"We have made this announcement to fulfil the wishes of the minister," he said.

Adelaide is Wong's hometown, and she said her own children would be "very happy" at the news.

"It's good for the economy, it's good for South Australian jobs, it's good for tourism and it's a symbol of goodwill, and we thank you," she said.

There are an estimated 1,860 giant pandas left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF.

But the animals, which were removed from the International Union for Conservation of Nature's endangered species list in 2016, still face serious threats from loss of habitat and fragmentation.

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Varieties

Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
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Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA

The excavation of a large Viking-era burial site in Denmark has unearthed 50 unusually well-preserved skeletons that archaeologists expect will help shed light on the lives of the Nordic people best known for their seafaring exploits in the Middle Ages.

The skeletons, discovered near Denmark's third-largest city Odense, were kept intact by high water levels and favorable soil conditions that prevented them from decomposing, according to Michael Borre Lundoe, the excavation leader from Museum Odense, Reuters reported.

"Normally when we excavate Viking graves, we'd be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave besides the grave goods. But here we have the skeletons fully preserved," said Lundoe.

"The skeletons are so amazing. They are so well preserved. There are five fingers, five toes. And that opens up a whole new set of possibilities for discoveries," he said.

Rare artifacts such as knives, glass pearls and brooches dated between year 850 to 970 were also found at the excavation, which began six months ago.

Lundoe said the grave gifts indicate most of the people were part of a small community of farmers, although a woman of higher status was buried with a silver-ornamented knife and a piece of glass which was rare in the Viking Age.

Archaeologists took soil samples to search for pollen to determine which season the person was buried in and what textiles they wore.

An x-ray of a soil block from the site revealed an oval brooch, an iconic Viking Age jewelry piece associated with women's garments, covered with wood and human remains.

On the back of another brooch with period-specific ornaments, mineralized woven textile fragments provided evidence of the type of dress worn in the Viking Age, the archaeologists said.

Most of the skeletons have been removed from the graves and packed in cardboard boxes at the museum to dry out before the examination and final cleaning.