It’s the end of an era for the Smithsonian’s beloved National Zoo for the pandas. The three pandas left the Washington Zoo. DC for China on Wednesday November 8th and after a long flight, landed in Chengdu on Thursday November 9th at the National Zoo. he said to X.
Giant pandas have been a major attraction there since 1972, when U.S. zoos struck a deal with the China Wildlife and Conservation Association.
Two of the pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, came to the zoo in 2000 as part of the deal. The pair were meant to stay for just 10 years for a research and breeding program, but the deal with China was expanded several times.
On August 21, 2020, the couple gave birth to a male puppy named Xiao Qi Ji. That same year, the zoo announced signed another three-year extension to keep the three pandas until the end of 2023.
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The Smithsonian outlined plans for the panda family’s return ahead of its departure on Wednesday. They explained that forklifts would be used to move each of them to the FedEx trucks. Trucks then transported them to Dulles International Airport, but they said they were not visible in their boxes when they were transferred to the “FedEx Panda Express,” a Boeing 777F plane with a custom label.
The zoo shared photos of those boxes Thursday, thanking FedEX. “Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji have landed in Chengdu! After a safe flight, they are on their way to their new home. Our team will stay for a few days while the pandas settle in. Thanks to @FedEx to transport our very important Pandas in style,” the zoo wrote in the post on X.
The National Zoo received its first pandas from China, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, in 1972 in an effort to save the species by breeding them. The zoo has had panda couples ever since.
Mei Xiang has given birth to seven cubs while at the zoo. Three of their cubs died before they were adults and three have been returned to China; part of the deal is that they must be paid back within 4 years. Xiao Qi Ji will stay with her parents at the zoo until they all return to China together.
With these three pandas returning to their homeland, there will be only four giant pandas left in the US, all of them in the The Atlanta Zoowhich is the home of Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their offspring, Ya Lun and Xi Lun.
Under China’s agreement with Zoo Atlanta, the youngest cubs will be returned by the end of 2024, and their parents are expected to return as well. The loan agreement, which was put in place in the mid-1990s, expires in 2024 and the zoo says there have been no discussions to extend it.
The Memphis Zoo and the San Diego Zoo were the only others in the United States to have housed giant pandas.
San Diego received its first two pandas for a 100-day visit in 1987. The zoo eventually signed a 12-year agreement and received two pandas, named Bai Yun and Shi Shi, in 1996.
The agreement was extended several times and six pandas were born at the zoo. All of them were returned to China at the end of the deal, which was concluded in 2019.
The Memphis Zoo’s 20-year loan agreement with China ended this year, and they returned their panda, Ya Yam, in April. the Associated Press reported
The research team at the Memphis Zoo developed an artificial insemination process that allowed one of their male pandas, Le Le, to help pandas around the world conceive babies. said the zoo. Le Le’s sperm was frozen and used to inseminate female pandas elsewhere, helping to increase the species’ population.
Le Le, however, died in February 2023 before the couple returned to China.
There are only about 1,864 pandas left in the wild, most of them in China’s Sichuan province. Breeding programs have been successful, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2017 upgraded the species from endangered to “vulnerable”. according to the World Wildlife Fund.
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