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Three ambassadors for giant pandas shared their knowledge with local audience during their visit to the Edinburgh Zoo on Tuesday.
It is the fifth highlight media stop for American girl Melissa Katz, Jerome Pouille from France and Erica Chen Yinrong from China, during their global tour calling for the protection of wildlife.
Chosen from 1.16 million applicants worldwide, the trio representing the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding talked about their experiences and understanding, and interacted with audiences during a Q&A session.
The audience responded warmly, answering questions to get a gift.
Pouille, a biologist who started his own website about pandas in 2002, was glad to see many panda fans were high school students.
"This is the first time in these stops that we have so many children listening to our talk," he said. "Education is the first part of conservation. You need to tell people why. And children is our next generation. Some of those sitting here might be politicians in the future. They have the planet in their hands."
Chen, 27, was impressed by the response of fans during her tour.
"They know more than we thought," she said. An example was two elderly ladies listening to their talks. "They could point out fragmentation as a cause why pandas are endangered."
As for Katz, the Edinburgh stop was special because "pandas are new here and still a phenomenon, and people are waiting for the birth of cubs."
Iain Valentine, director of the giant pandas project at Edinburgh Zoo, noted the visit of these ambassadors was "a good opportunity to get people interested."
"Panda is an easy one to talk about, to whom people are passionate," he said. "In fact, it is not only about pandas, but the habitat of all wildlife that we need to protect."
The three panda conservation ambassadors officially kicked off their Global Panda Protection Tour on Aug. 23 in Hong Kong. They had traveled to 11 countries and regions before coming to the United Kingdom, and will wrap up their visit in France.
Giant pandas are one of the most endangered animal species in the world. Statistics show that a population of about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountainous areas of China's Sichuan province, while more than 300 live in captivity.
Edinburgh is the only city in Britain that houses pandas, after Yang Guang and Tian Tian, or Sunshine and Sweet, were loaned to the Edinburgh Zoo in 2011 for 10 years.
