Final pandas within the U.S. have a timetable to fly again to China

The final U.S. zoo with pandas in its care expects to say goodbye to the 4 big bears this fall.

Zoo Atlanta is making preparations to return panda dad and mom Lun Lun and Yang Yang to China together with their American-born twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun, zoo officers mentioned Friday. There isn’t any particular date for the switch but, they mentioned, however it should probably occur between October and December.

The 4 Atlanta pandas have been the final in america for the reason that Nationwide Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China final November. These pandas flew to China on Nov. 8 and 24 later landed in Chengdu the place the Chinese language Nationwide Zoo is positioned. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian had been on mortgage for a analysis and breeding program. In 2020 the couple had a child named Xiao Qi Ji, who additionally returned to China. Forklifts needed to transfer the enormous pandas to the airport in vehicles the place they boarded a particular flight with “snacks,” together with round 220 kilos of bamboo. 

Pandas had been first despatched to D.C. to save lots of the species by breeding them, and {couples} have been saved on the zoo ever since. 

Different American zoos have despatched pandas again to China as mortgage agreements lapsed amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the 2 nations. Along with Atlanta and Washington D.C. zoos, the Memphis Zoo and the San Diego Zoo had been the one others within the U.S. to have housed big pandas. Memphis returned its final surviving panda in April 2023. San Diego returned its pandas in 2019 greater than three a long time after the primary couple’s arrival in 1987.

Atlanta obtained Lun Lun and Yang Yang from China in 1999 as a part of a 25-year mortgage settlement that can quickly expire.

Ya Lun and Xi Lun, born in 2016, are the youngest of seven pandas born at Zoo Atlanta since their dad and mom arrived. Their siblings are already within the care of China’s Chengdu Analysis Middle of Large Panda Breeding.

It’s attainable that America will welcome a brand new panda pair earlier than the Atlanta bears depart. The San Diego Zoo mentioned final month that employees members not too long ago traveled to China to satisfy pandas Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, which might arrive in California as quickly as this summer season. San Francisco Zoo additionally not too long ago signed in April a memorandum of understanding with the China Wildlife Conservation Affiliation to convey pandas to the zoo. Within the Eighties pandas had been briefly hosted on the zoo, however the settlement marks the primary time pandas will reside at San Francisco Zoo. 

Zoo Atlanta officers mentioned in a information launch they need to be capable to share “vital advance discover” earlier than their pandas depart. As as to whether Atlanta may see host any future pandas, “no discussions have but taken place with companions in China,” zoo officers mentioned.

There are simply over 1,800 pandas left within the wild, in keeping with the World Wildlife Fund, and though breeding applications have elevated their numbers, the panda’s survival remains to be thought-about at extreme danger. 

Reporting contributed by Caitlin O’Kane.