Qatar received on Wednesday Chinese giant pandas Suhail and Soraya ahead of next month's World Cup.
Crowds of children and reporters watched as the four-year-old male and three-year-old female took their first steps in a temporary enclosure in a ceremony at the Al Khor park about 50 kilometers north of Doha.
The Chinese government sent the animals as gift to mark the World Cup that starts November 20.
Suhail, who weighs 130 kilograms, and his female partner, who is 70 kilos, must undergo a 21-day quarantine following their arrival along with two keepers, said Al Khor's zoological director Tim Bouts.
"In a few weeks, or in a month's time, they will be ready to be shown to the world," Bouts added.
Eight hundred kilograms of fresh bamboo will be flown in each week to feed them.
Pandas, which reproduce rarely in the wild and rely on a diet of bamboo in the mountains of western China, remain among the world's most threatened species. An estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild, while another 500 are in zoos or reserves, mostly in Sichuan.
