The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has announced that giant pandas Yang Guang and Tian Tian will return to China in early December 2023.
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The potential end of the National Zoo's panda era comes amid what veteran China-watchers say is a larger trend. With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.
The National Zoo's three giant pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — are set to return to China in early December with no public signs that the 50-year-old exchange agreement struck by President Richard Nixon will continue.
Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji roams in his enclosure at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, Sept. 28, 2023. The San Diego Zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.
Panda diplomacy is the practice of sending giant pandas from China to other countries as a tool of diplomacy. From 1941 to 1984, China gave a gift of pandas to other countries. After a change in policy in 1984, pandas were leased instead of given as a gift.
Former San Diego Zoo panda keeper Dallas Dumont explains that the giant pandas were never expected to remain here forever. “We knew when we started the program that they were not our bears and that they wouldn't be staying… China believes in having their animals retire back in their country.”
It's the end of an era at the San Diego Zoo as the last two giant pandas will soon leave for China. In an announcement Monday, zoo officials said the pandas, Bai Yun, 27 — a fixture at the zoo for 23 years — and her son, Xiao Liwu, 6, would leave San Diego because a multiyear agreement with the Chinese had ended.
However, by the end of 2024, Atlanta's pandas will also return to their homeland. Other U.S. zoos that had giant pandas, including San Diego and Memphis, sent them back in 2019 and earlier this year, respectively.
So we had to do it now that they're going away.” The National Zoo's three giant pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — are set to return to China in early December with no public signs that the 50-year-old exchange agreement struck by President Richard Nixon will continue.
The Chinese government, which gifted the first pair of pandas - Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling - to the U.S., now leases the pandas out for a typical 10-year renewable term. The annual fee ranges from $1 million to $2 million per pair, plus mandatory costs to build and maintain facilities to house the animals.
The Chinese government, which gifted the first pair of pandas - Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling - to the U.S., now leases the pandas out for a typical 10-year renewable term. The annual fee ranges from $1 million to $2 million per pair, plus mandatory costs to build and maintain facilities to house the animals.
The San Diego Zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year. The departure of the National Zoo's bears would mean that the only giant pandas left in America are at the Atlanta Zoo — and that loan agreement expires late next year.
Zoo Atlanta has so far been very successful in this resource-intensive process. The giant pandas may be seen year-round at virtually any time of day. Because they are native to high-elevation cool mountain forests, in the warmer months they will generally be in their climate-controlled dayroom habitats.
Every giant panda in the US is on loan from the Chinese government. At every zoo in the country - except Atlanta's - that loan will expire in December. The two babies, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, and the two adults, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, at Zoo Atlanta are expected to remain but head back sometime in 2024.
For residents of Washington, D.C., the giant pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute are built into the city's identity. The bears have been living at the zoo for over 50 years, and every announcement -- from panda pregnancies to cub births to birthday celebrations -- gets notice.
China began to offer pandas to other nations only on ten-year lease. The standard lease terms include a fee of up to US$1 million per year and a provision that any cubs born during the lease period be the property of the People's Republic of China.