Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018.
Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
HELSINKI — A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.
The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year.
The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.
