The two left the zoo around 4pm on Monday in seperate cages on an SUV and spent the night at Raiganj

A pair of red pandas are on their way from Darjeeling to Berlin through Calcutta.

The two — Joel, four-and-a-half years old, and Shine, a year older — were bred in captivity at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling.

They are being sent to Germany as part of an exchange programme, under which five takins — heavily built goat-like mammals, bigger than spotted deer but smaller than yak — were brought to Darjeeling from

the Tierpark zoo, in the Germal capital, last January.

The two pandas were brought to Calcutta on Tuesday evening. They will board a Qatar Airways flight on Wednesday for a 22-hour journey to Berlin. The flight has a three-hour stop-over in Doha.

“The pandas will add to the genetic diversity of the European zoo,” said Rajendra Jakher, the director of the Darjeeling zoo.

The two red pandas left the hills at 4pm on Monday in separate cages in a Toyota Innova. They spent the night at Raiganj, in North Dinajpur, and arrived at the Calcutta airport around 7pm on Tuesday.

“We have provided bamboo leaves and fruits for their entire journey. They ate around 6pm on Tuesday and need not be fed till Doha. In Doha, they will be kept in a designated area,” said P.C. Maity of Parbati International, the logistic company handling the transfer of the pandas.

In Berlin, Joel and Shine will be handed over to a team from the Tierpark zoo led by a vet.

In 2010, a panda from the Darjeeling zoo had been sent to a zoological park in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Darjeeling zoo, known internationally for its red panda conservation and breeding programme, has 21 red pandas at the moment.

The shy animal is found in Singalila National Park in Darjeeling district and Neora Valley National Park in Kalimpong district, located about 12,000ft and 7,200ft, respectively. Singalila is spread across 90sq km and Neora Valley, 180sq km.

The zoo authorities plan to release four red pandas into the wild in Singalila National Park later this year.

The red panda is an endangered species under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

“We will get four more pandas from zoos in Australia, Denmark and Czechoslovakia for captive breeding. Two male pandas will reach here from Australia, while the females will come from the other two countries. All the animals are expected to reach here by August,” Jakhar said.