Two giant pandas are set to arrive at Washington’s National Zoo from China by the end of the year, the zoo announced on Wednesday.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said the pair of pandas are Bao Li, 2, a male and Qing Bao, 2, a female. The announcement comes about half-a-year after the zoo sent its three pandas back to China.
“We’re thrilled to announce the next chapter of our breeding and conservation partnership begins by welcoming two new bears, including a descendent of our beloved panda family, to Washington, D.C.,” said Brandie Smith, the institute’s John and Adrienne Mars director.
“This historic moment is proof positive our collaboration with Chinese colleagues has made an irrefutable impact. Through this partnership, we have grown the panda population, advanced our shared understanding of how to care for this beloved bear and learnt what’s needed to protect wild pandas and preserve native habitat,” Smith added.
Aiming to move the panda from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction, the institute has created and maintained one of the world’s foremost giant panda conservation programmes for more than five decades.
The announcement comes amid the tense relationship between the United States and China, which owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos, and the short period since the departure of pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji, in November last year.
The new pandas are coming on a 10-year lease, ending in April 2034, during which the zoo will pay the China Wildlife and Conservation Association $1 million a year, the zoo said in its announcement.
Pandas: An unofficial barometer of China’s diplomatic ties
‘Panda Diplomacy’, as it is known, has long been the symbol of the U.S.-China friendship since Beijing gifted a pair to the National Zoo in 1972, ahead of the normalisation of bilateral relations. Later, Beijing loaned the pandas to other U.S. zoos, with profits going back to panda conservation programmes.
The fur balls are seen as icons in Washington, D.C., and are beloved around the nation and the world. Chinese President Xi Jinping called them “envoys of friendship” between the two nations.
However, American zoos have sent pandas back to China as loan agreements lapsed amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China, prompting a nationwide outpouring of farewell from millions of panda fans of all ages.
“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi said earlier during a speech.
When U.S.-China relations began to sour in recent years, the Chinese public started to demand the return of giant pandas. Additionally, unproven allegations that U.S. zoos mistreated the pandas, known as China’s “national treasure,” flooded China’s social media.
(With inputs from agencies)
