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.
People Also Ask
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.
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 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.
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.
The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around age 3 or 4. The San Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.
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.
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.”
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.
Panda diplomacy, in its current form, works like this: China loans pandas to a zoo in the United States or another country, and the zoo pays an annual fee — usually $500,000 to $1 million each — to keep the pandas for at least a few years.
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.
Don't expect new pandas to come to the San Diego Zoo anytime soon. The attraction will continue to highlight the status of this threatened species, thereby continuing its legacy even if pandas cubs are no longer in residence there.
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — It's official. On Wednesday, the Memphis Zoo announced their pandas will be heading back to China next year, ending a 20-year-long stay.