Where did San Diego Zoo pandas go?

All six of the pandas born at our zoo have returned to their homeland in China, where they continue to make us proud!



People Also Ask

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

Red Pandas They are most active at dawn and dusk, but with a keen eye you might catch a glimpse of Lucas, Kola, or Adira and her cub sunbathing during the day. Enjoy watching our red pandas in their habitat at Asian Passage, at the San Diego Zoo.

MORE DETAILS

Video: Red panda escapes San Diego Zoo habitat by climbing tree. A red panda climbed a tree and escaped his San Diego Zoo habitat over the weekend but was captured hours later and returned to his home.

MORE DETAILS

Check out these 5 zoos in the US that have red pandas.
  • Zoo Knoxville. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee. ...
  • Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio. ...
  • Woodland Park Zoo. Location: Seattle, Washington. ...
  • Red River Zoo. Location: Fargo, North Dakota. ...
  • Smithsonian's National Zoo. Location: Washington, DC.


MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The US received its first pandas in 1972 after first lady Pat Nixon commented during a state function in China about her love for the animals. By 1984, panda diplomacy changed. The bears were no longer presented as gifts but instead were loaned for 10 years, a period that could be extended.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

Our elephant habitats spread out over six acres, divided into two main yards, and providing all the elephants with opportunities for social interaction and with inviting space. With eight African elephants, there's always something happening here!

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

China is the only natural habitat of the giant pandas; and Beijing has used the animals since the 1950s as part of its panda diplomacy programme. China has gifted and loaned pandas to other countries, and also taken them back when relations soured! Beijing gifted its first panda, Ping Ping, to the USSR in 1957.

MORE DETAILS

American zoos do not actually own the pandas that we enjoy going to visit. China rents pandas out to the tune of $1 million a year. Zoos typically sign a 10-year contract, which means that at the end of that contract, a zoo will have spent $10 million renting one panda. And any cubs that are born while at the zoo?

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

All six of the pandas born at our zoo have returned to their homeland in China, where they continue to make us proud!

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS