What’s black and white, fuzzy, and coming back to Grant Park in Atlanta? Giant pandas, of course.
After a meeting between world leaders, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that he is sending two pandas to Zoo Atlanta. The move comes after Beijing reclaimed four pandas in 2024, as diplomatic tensions between China and the U.S. intensified.
Male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang are coming to Atlanta “in a few days” as part of a giant panda conservation agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, the Associated Press reported. Both pandas were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.
Xi called the panda loan programs with the U.S. “an envoy of friendship.”
According to the Associated Press, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun and Xi Lun returned to China from Zoo Atlanta in 2024. Other pandas returned to China from the National Zoo in Washington, as loan agreements lapsed.
Zoo Atlanta officials announced in April that a new International Cooperative Research Agreement on Giant Panda Conservation was initiated between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association.
“Zoo Atlanta is delighted and honored to yet again be trusted as stewards of this treasured species and to partner with the China Wildlife Conservation Association on the continued conservation and research efforts that are the most important outcomes of this cooperation,” President and CEO Raymond B. King said.
Zoo Atlanta’s original giant panda agreement with China spanned from 1999 to 2024. From 2006 to 2016, seven offspring were born to Lun Lun and Yang Yang. The youngest offspring, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, departed Atlanta for the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in October 2024. The pair’s first five offspring also reside there.
Zoo Atlanta’s partnership with its colleagues in China forged a longtime history of collaboration and information exchange toward shared goals of the professional care, study, and conservation of the species, according to a press release.
