Two giant pandas will be introduced to the San Diego Zoo all the way from China! On Monday, April 29, 2024, The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance released a statement saying their care team leaders traveled to China to meet two pandas; soon they will be traveling across the globe to California. “It was an honor to see Yun Chuan and Xin Bao in person and meet our conservation partners caring for them at the Wolong and Bifengxia Panda Bases,” Dr. Megan Owen, vice president of conservation science at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a press release.
Also known as “panda diplomacy,” China has been sending pandas to the United States as a gesture of friendship. This exchange first started in 1972 when Beijing first gifted a pair of pandas to the Smithsonian Zoological National Park in Washington D.C. To increase the population and help breed cubs, China began to loan pandas to different zoos. The United States, Spain, and Austria were some of the first countries to work alongside China regarding panda conservation. According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, 28 pandas have been born in those countries.
Only 4 pandas currently remain in the United States, as China did not renew their loan agreements in recent years. The San Diego Zoo has not kept pandas since 2019, but soon two will be introduced:.“We look forward to further expanding the research outcomes on the conservation of endangered species such as giant pandas, and promoting mutual understanding and friendship among peoples through the new round of international cooperation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), giant pandas’ are the rarest member of the bear family and are among the world’s most threatened animals. Giant pandas have an approximate 15-year lifespan in the wild, although they can live up to 38 years in captivity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature previously considered the giant panda endangered. Thanks to multiple conservation efforts, the agency changed the panda’s status to vulnerable in 2016.
Yun Chuan, the 4-year-old panda, is described as clever and kind. His mother, Zhen-Zhen, was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007. The other panda, Xin Bao, is 3 years old and is described as active and witty. While there isn’t an exact arrival date, the pandas can be introduced to the San Diego Zoo as early as this summer!
