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.
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There used to be more pandas at zoos around the world, including St. Louis, but China's population boom and several famines after World War II that led to hunting them for food led to far lower numbers. In the early 1960's China set up a nature reserve to protect the Giant Panda.
This means that currently, you can only see pandas in zoos in the US in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. The pandas at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C. are on loan until December 7, 2023. The pandas in Atlanta are on loan through late 2024.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
And out of the 350 giant pandas, only a mere 50 can be found outside of China. As per reports, China has direct ownership over every living giant panda around the world, even if they might have been born in another country.
A family tree of Mexico's pandas dates back to 1974, when Pe Pe and Ying Ying were born. China gifted the pair to Mexico a year later. When their daughter Shuan Shuan died at 35 years old in 2022, Xin Xin became the zoo's last panda.