CANBERRA -- Australia's only giant pandas have left the country for China after 15 years.

Wang Wang and Fu Ni left South Australia for China on a cargo flight just after 6:30 am local time on Friday.

The pair arrived at the Adelaide Zoo in November 2009 and were the only giant pandas in the Southern Hemisphere.

They will be replaced at the Adelaide Zoo by female giant panda Yi Lan and male Xing Qiu, both from Chengdu, China.

The Bamboo Forest at the zoo was closed to the public from 5 pm local time on Wednesday as zookeepers prepared Wang Wang and Fu Ni for their journey.

In a video posted on social media earlier in November, the zoo's senior primate keeper, Pij Olijnyk, said he loved having the pandas greet him every morning.

"They greet you. They verbally greet you and seem happy to see you and welcome you into that environment," he said.

Repeated attempts to produce a cub by mating Wang Wang and Fu Ni during their 15 years in Adelaide proved unsuccessful.

Fu Ni showed signs of pregnancy in 2023 following an attempt at artificial insemination, but the zoo said that the giant panda had undergone either a pseudopregnancy or a loss.