Both parents and any offspring remained under the ownership of China. In December 2020, the Zoo announced that giant pandas would continue to live at the Smithsonian's National Zoo through the end of 2023.
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The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is a world leader at breeding giant pandas. The Zoo's giant pandas are part of a breeding program that carefully matches potential giant panda parents in order to keep the population genetically healthy well into the future.
On Aug. 21, 2020, the pair gave birth to a male cub named Xiao Qi Ji and that same year the zoo announced it signed another three-year extension to keep all three pandas until the end of 2023.
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.
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.
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.”
The giant pandas left the San Diego Zoo a few weeks ago after the zoo's successful giant panda conservation program with China came to an end. That end meant Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu, the final two Giant Pandas left at the San Diego Zoo, would have to be repatriated to China.
Chi Chi (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Ji Ji; September 1954 – 22 July 1972) was a well-known female giant panda at London Zoo in England. Chi Chi was not London Zoo's first giant panda; Ming was one of four that arrived in 1938.
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.
San Diego Zoo Global (now known as San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance) chief operating officer Shawn Dixon explains, “Working with our colleagues in China, San Diego Zoo Global is ready to make a commitment for the next stage of our panda program.” Don't expect new pandas to come to the San Diego Zoo anytime soon.
As a gesture of goodwill following President Nixon's seminal state visit, Premier Enlai gifted two giant pandas to the American people. Nestled in the Nation's Capital and with free admission, the President and Mrs. Nixon selected the Smithsonian's National Zoo as the home for the giant panda bears.
That's because almost all pandas, even ones born abroad, are considered the property of China—as part of a loan program it has with selected zoos around the world. The newly born female twin pandas at Everland Amusement and Animal Park in Yongin, on July 7.
While giant pandas are no longer endangered, they are considered a vulnerable species. In return for keeping the pandas for a few years, foreign zoos have to pay around $500,000 to $1 million each annually to China.
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.
Pandas are a threatened species, still just one step away from the classification of endangered. But along with China's growing efforts to protect a massive area of forested land, captive breeding has, for now, managed to avert their extinction.
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.
YaYa languished before at the Memphis Zoo and now is much happier in China. A chubby, active, and happy YaYa is now seen playing in the yard of Beijing Zoo.