Returning to China are some of the remaining giant pandas living in the United States.
The three pandas at the National Zoo, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji, a 3-year-old male cub, will return to China sooner than anticipated on November 15, the zoo said last week.
Fans of pandas have flocked in to bid farewell to the black-and-white animals, who have long been a top draw at the zoo.
Ryan Nickol, who has made several trips from Pennsylvania to visit the pandas in recent weeks, told NBC News, “It’s probably going to be quite a while, possibly one of the final times that I see a panda in captivity.” Therefore, it’s a little depressing as well as aggravating.
With their departure, Zoo Atlanta is now the sole American facility that maintains a giant panda program. There is a chance that, for the first time since 1972, there won’t be any pandas in the United States when the loan agreement for the zoo’s four pandas expires the following year.
The loss of the cherished bears, which China has long given to other nations in a practice known as “panda diplomacy,” is not unique to the United States. While Australia and China are negotiating an extension of a loan deal for two pandas at the Adelaide Zoo that expires next year, the only two pandas in Britain are scheduled to return to China from the Edinburgh Zoo by the end of the year.
By 2024, there may be no pandas in any of the three countries, depending on what transpires.
The panda migration coincides with disagreements between China and the United States and its allies over trade, technology, Taiwan’s status, and China’s position on the conflicts in the Middle East & Ukraine. President Joe Biden & Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in San Francisco this month, marking their first meeting in a year. Both countries have indicated a desire to strengthen their relations.
The pandas at the National Zoo have been crate-trained by animal keepers and curators in anticipation of their 20-hour voyage.
The pandas are flying on a chartered FedEx airplane, and wildlife keeper Mariel Lally stated, “The pandas absolutely love their crates.” Mei Xiang is one of the pandas who genuinely refuses to leave their container.
“To get them out of it, we have to bribe them with food,” she continued.
The pandas are expected by zoo staff to sleep and eat for most of the flight. The zoo is bringing apples, carrots, and sweet potatoes along with roughly 200 pounds of bamboo for the flight.
In 2000, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to the National Zoo on a ten-year contract that was extended three times in 2010. Artificial insemination led to the birth of Xiao Qi Ji in 2020; her name means “little miracle.”
The existing panda arrangement with the zoo expires on December 7; attempts to extend it have failed.
The trio’s departure to China would be tough for the keepers who see them, as Laurie Thompson, the zoo’s assistant curator of giant pandas, puts it, “almost more than I see my family.”
“Not having them here is a little heartbreaking,” the woman remarked.
Following President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972, which helped pave the way for the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979, the first gigantic pandas were brought to the United States.
According to Chee Meng Tan, an assistant professor at the Malaysian campus of Nottingham University Business School who has researched panda diplomacy, “it’s basically a symbol of friendship between China and the rest of the world.”
Although not endangered, the giant panda, which is native to China, is nonetheless in danger. There are an estimated 1,800 bears in the wild and another 600 in captivity worldwide; international zoos rent bears from China, with the proceeds going toward conservation efforts.
The expiration of the Panda Agreements, according to Harvard government professor and former Defense Department official Graham Allison, is a sign of the “generally worsening” U.S.-China relationship as both nations adopt moves that harm the other but are ultimately ineffective.
He remarked, “This is a good example because it won’t make the people who came to see the panda happier.” “It will make them more depressed, and they will probably blame China more than the United States.”
Tensions between the United States and China have already raised issues with pandas. Ya Ya, a panda with a chronic skin problem, was sent back to China from the Memphis Zoo this spring. After animal welfare advocates accused the zoo of mistreating both her and Le Le, a 25-year-old panda who passed away in February, Ya Ya became the focus of online nationalistic fervor. The zoo and Chinese officials both said that the pandas were well taken care of.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., presented a bill last year that would “allow pandas born in the United States to remain in the United States and give freedom to the pandas.”
No matter how sour their relationship, the United States and China should keep exchanging pandas, according to Victor Gao, chair professor at Soochow University and vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing.
Pandas could greatly help to lessen our passionate relationship, even though we already have one.
Russia, which has become increasingly closer to China, particularly since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, is one nation that welcomed two new pandas in 2019. At the Moscow Zoo’s Panda Pavilion inauguration ceremony, Putin and Xi were present. Xi predicted that the pavilion would “become another good story of friendship among the Chinese and Russian people.”
Though their departure has long been anticipated, the pandas at the National Zoo are going sooner than planned.
Bryan Amaral, senior curator of pandas at the zoo, said, “We knew this was the eventuality when we entered into this relationship 23 years ago.” “Thus, we’re pleased that we were able to return to China with three healthy, adjusted pandas, marking the end of our journey.”