Toronto is bracing for panda-monium as the city’s zoo welcomes two bamboo-eating bears that are expected to reside at the facility for at least five years.

Two giant pandas are scheduled to arrive at Pearson International Airport at around 10:30 a.m. after making the 15-hour journey from Chengdu in southwestern China.

The Pandas, which each weigh about 370 kilograms, are being transported to Canada aboard a custom made FedEx cargo plane called the “Panda Express.”

The plane usually carries about 197,000 lbs of freight, but today it's just transporting the pandas, a veterinarian, two attendants and plenty of bamboo.

"They are being treated with 50 kilograms of apples, 200 kilograms of bamboo and all the toys they need to play with," FedEx Spokesperson Adrian Grundy told CP24 early Monday morning. "It’s a comfortable and smooth flight for them. It's business class all the way."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Junsai are expected to be on hand to welcome the bears to Canada at a special event at FedEx’s hangar.

The Pandas will then be given a police escort to the Toronto Zoo, where they will be put into “immediate quarantine” for 30 days.

When the bears, named Er Shun and Da Mao, go on public display in May, it will be the first time in almost 30 years that pandas have been featured at the Toronto Zoo.

The breeding pair is on loan as part of a conservation partnership signed by the Chinese and Canadian governments.

"It has been a buzz over the last year," Maria Franke, curator of mammals at the zoo, told CP24 Monday morning. "We have had staff flying all over the place, keeper training, vet training, we have been dealing with a lot of permits and testing and we are just so excited."

The pandas are expected to remain in Canada for 10 years, spending a minimum of five years at Toronto Zoo before moving on to Calgary Zoo.

If the pandas breed a cub at Toronto Zoo, they would remain in Toronto until they are fit to be moved.

The zoo renovated the existing Amur tiger exhibit and adjacent space to make room for the pandas and a new interpretive centre.

Native to mountain ranges in central China, the giant panda is an endangered species that has been forced out of lowland areas due to farming, deforestation and human encroachment.

According to the Toronto Zoo, there are about 1,600 left in the wild, and nearly 300 live in zoos and breeding centres around the world, but mostly in China.

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