Last pandas in the U.S. have a timetable to fly back to China
The last U.S. zoo with pandas in its care expects to say goodbye to the four giant bears this fall.
Zoo Atlanta is making preparations to return panda parents Lun Lun and Yang Yang to China along with their American-born twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun, zoo officials said Friday. There is no specific date for the transfer yet, they said, but it will likely happen between October and December.
Kate Brumback / AP
The four Atlanta pandas have been the last in the United States since the National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China last November. Those pandas flew to China on Nov. 8 and 24 later landed in Chengdu where the Chinese National Zoo is located. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were on loan for a research and breeding program. In 2020 the couple had a baby named Xiao Qi Ji, who also returned to China. Forklifts had to move the giant pandas to the airport in trucks where they boarded a special flight with “snacks,” including around 220 pounds of bamboo.
recently signed in April a memorandum of understanding with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to bring pandas to the zoo. In the 1980s pandas were briefly hosted at the zoo, but the agreement marks the first time pandas will reside at San Francisco Zoo.
Zoo Atlanta officials said in a news release they should be able to share “significant advance notice” before their pandas leave. As to whether Atlanta might see host any future pandas, “no discussions have yet taken place with partners in China,” zoo officials said.
There are just over 1,800 pandas left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and although breeding programs have increased their numbers, the panda’s survival is still considered at severe risk.
Reporting contributed by Caitlin O’Kane.
Source: cbsnews.com