Ling Ling, a 15-year-old giant panda who left its home in a Tokyo zoo on Monday, will spend three months in a famed Mexico City zoo in the hope of a successful mating, zoo officials said.
The officials announced that should the mating be successful, the first offspring will go to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo and the second to Chapultepec Zoo, which at the moment houses three female pandas.
The male Ling Ling had been the only giant panda kept at Ueno Zoo since the death of the zoo's female giant panda, Tong Tong, in July last year.
It will be the first time Ueno Zoo has been without a resident panda since China first donated pandas to the zoo in 1972.
Zoo director Hiroshi Sugaya expressed his sadness at Ling Ling's departure but hoped for the best in the mating, saying he believes "international cooperation is necessary for rare animals such as pandas."