Giant pandas Wang Wang and Funi have been released into their new enclosures at Adelaide Zoo.
The pandas, which are the only ones in captivity in the Southern Hemisphere, arrived in Adelaide late last year on loan from China for the next decade.
Since that time they have been confined to their air-conditioned lodgings, part of the zoo's $8 million giant panda enclosure.
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, armed with a two-way radio by which she gave the order to release the pandas, said that while the pandas were good for bilateral relations with China, the focus should be on the environment not politics.
"This isn't a political issue, this is about the environment, about the community, about learning more about these fantastic creatures," she said.
"It's also learning about the impact human beings have on the environment, that climate change has on the habitat of these animals and any others."
Adelaide Zoo chief executive Chris West said visitor numbers were up for the zoo since the pandas' arrival.
The pandas were not fazed by all the fuss and media fanfare, after needing a little prompting by their keeper to escape the confines of the glass.
Although the young pair are in two separate yards, Dr West said they hope the pandas will eventually breed.
