TAIPEI, Oct 8 (Reuters) - As China prepares two endangered giant pandas for Taiwan as a symbol of warming ties, the island plans to send a rare goat-and-deer duo to its political rival, officials said on Wednesday.

"In keeping with normal practice for exchanging animals, we need to offer species that are special to Taiwan," a city of Taipei spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung said. "For once the trade is confirmed, we've made preparations. The goat and the deer are both native."

Chinese and Taiwan officials must approve the animal exchange but are expected to give it a nod. Over the past two years, Beijing has taken steps to make a friendlier impression on the people of Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignity, but its offer of pandas was rejected twice.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, and Beijing has threatened to use force if the island formally declares statehood.

Beijing's offer of pandas, a gesture of goodwill to push its unification agenda, had been rejected by the former government led by a China-hostile president but current President Ma Ying-jeou has said he would welcome them.

About 1,000 pandas live in the wild bamboo forests of central and western China, which has given the animals to nine countries since 1957.

The combined names of the gift pandas mean "unite" while the names of Taiwan's goat-deer duo said together mean "forever."

The Taipei city zoo will donate the native sika deer, a critically endangered species, and a Formosan serow, a small but agile mountain goat that's also seldom seen anymore in Taiwan.

Despite the Taiwan offer's smaller size, some say neither party is getting any better a deal, as any of the three species may adapt poorly to their new habitats. "They don't need to make any exchange," said Hsu Yung-ming of Taipei-based think tank Academia Sinica. (Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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