The National Zoo in Washington is getting ready to welcome a couple of new ones giant pandas at the end of the year about six months after sending her three pandas to China.
It was previously home to the National Zoo and the Smithsonian's Institute of Conservation Biology Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, which were on loan from China for a research and breeding program. The two pandas and their baby, Xiao Qi Ji, will not return, but visitors will soon be able to meet Bao Li and Qing Bao, the zoo said in a news release.
Bao Li, a 2-year-old giant panda, is the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian.
Roshan Patel, Smithsonian National Zoo and Institute of Conservation Biology
The second panda, Qing Bao, is also 2 years old.
Roshan Patel, Smithsonian National Zoo and Institute of Conservation Biology.
Both were born at the China Giant Panda Research and Conservation Center. They will be transported to the United States by FedEx, which has previously shepherded pandas between the US and China.
As the pandas return, so will the zoo's Panda Cam, which allows people around the world to check in with the pandas in real time, according to Lonnie G. Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Pandas were first sent to DC in 1972 to help reproduce and continue the species. In a video shared on social media to announce the return of the pandas, zoo official Brandie Smith referred to the program as “one of our biggest conservation success stories.”
Only a few zoos took in pandas while the program was in effect, including the National Zoo, the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, and the San Diego Zoo in California. All three zoos returned their pandas as loan agreements expired and diplomatic tensions between the United States and China escalated. The last pandas in the US are at Zoo Atlanta and they are expected to return in China between October and December.
There is also a new pair of pandas they are expected to be sent to the San Diego Zoo already at the end of this summer. The China Wildlife Conservation Association has also signed cooperation agreements with a Madrid zooSpain, and was in talks for this agreement with a zoo in Vienna, Austria.
Pandas have long been a symbol of friendship between the United States and China since the first were sent to the National Zoo in 1972 before the normalization of relations between the countries. Zoos also helped breed pandas and increase the population of the species.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are just over 1,800 pandas left in the wild, and although breeding programs have increased their numbers, the panda's survival is still considered to be at serious risk.
Zoos typically pay a fee of $1 million a year for two pandas, with the money earmarked for China's conservation efforts, according to a 2022 report by the US Congressional Research Service.
