Giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni bid farewell to Adelaide Zoo on Saturday after 15 years in Australia, as locals gathered to say goodbye before their return to China.
Pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been living at Adelaide Zoo since 2009 as part of a Sino-Australian giant panda conservation and research collaboration. During their stay, the pair became the zoo’s most iconic residents, attracting flocks of global visitors every year.
Local fans expressed deep emotions during their send-off.
"I will miss them so much. It feels like family leaving," said one visitor. "I hope they will be happy back in their homeland," said a tourist.
To commemorate the pandas' departure, Adelaide Zoo set up a special panda mailbox where visitors could leave messages for Wang Wang and Fu Ni. In less than a month, over 1,000 letters of good wishes were collected, with some to accompany the pandas on their journey home.
While Wang Wang and Fu Ni's departure marks the end of a long journey, the partnership between China and Australia on panda conservation continues. At the end of this year, a new pair of giant pandas, Yi Lan and Xing Qiu, will arrive at Adelaide Zoo to carry on the country's panda story.
Beloved giant pandas depart Australia for China after 15-year stay at Adelaide Zoo
The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.
The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.
Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.
"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.
Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.
Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.
"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.
Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight
