San Diego Zoo could be the first in the US to bring pandas back from China

Giant pandas from China could soon arrive in the United States again as Beijing plans to continue its panda diplomacy with Western countries, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy in the United States.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association has reached agreements with the San Diego Zoo in California and the Madrid Zoo in Spain “on a new round of international cooperation in giant panda conservation,” the statement said.

The deal would maintain a more than five-decade-old tradition of China lending pandas to U.S. zoos in a gesture of friendly diplomacy between the two countries. The return of several pandas from the United States to China in recent years had raised questions about whether the practice was coming to an end.

According to the embassy statement, China is also negotiating with the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.

“It has always been our intention and hope to have giant pandas at the zoo in the future and to continue our research here and our conservation work in China,” said Dr. Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, in a statement. She added that the National Zoo was in discussions with the China Wildlife Conservation Association “to develop a future giant panda program.”

Dr. Megan Owen, the San Diego Zoo’s vice president of conservation sciences, said in a statement that the zoo is “taking important steps to ensure we are prepared for a potential return.”

The new round of what the Chinese embassy called “cooperative research” will focus on controlling and preventing diseases among giant pandas and more, according to the announcement.

The San Diego Zoo sent its last pandas back to China in 2019. And last April, the Memphis Zoo brought back its female giant panda, Ya Ya. Animal welfare activists were alarmed by videos and photos of Ya Ya at the time, showing her with a mangy coat and looking somewhat thin. Animal rights groups had campaigned for her release, blaming the zoo for the death of Ya Ya’s partner, Le Le. The Memphis Zoo and Chinese officials denied any wrongdoing.

Then last November, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington sent its two aging adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, ​​and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, back to China on a 19-hour FedEx flight, the Panda Express.

The move led to speculation that rising tensions between the U.S. and Chinese governments were the reason behind the pandas’ return to Washington, but National Zoo officials and scientists said each of the three pandas was at an age where they should have been returned to China should return.

The departure of the pandas made Atlanta is the only place in the United States where giant pandas (two adults and two babies) could be observed, although those bears are expected to return to China sometime this year.

Panda diplomacy between the United States and China dates back to the 1970s. It began after President Nixon made a landmark visit to China in 1972, normalizing relations between the two countries. Within two months, China had sent a female and male panda to the National Zoo. The original pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, lived together in the zoo and produced five cubs, none of which survived.

Zoos that receive pandas from China pay an annual fee to keep the animals, and typically do so for at least a few years. The zoos in the United States that have housed the pandas in recent decades are negotiating their own contracts with conservation groups in China.

While the furry diplomats chew their bamboo, oblivious to their geopolitical significance, critics have said panda diplomacy has been used by China to soften its authoritarian image and divert attention from its record of human rights abuses .

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hinted in a speech last fall that more giant pandas might come to American zoos. “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States in the field of panda conservation and do our best to meet the wishes of Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” said Mr Xi at the time.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are just over 1,860 pandas left in the wild, as the species remains vulnerable after coming to the brink of extinction in the 1990s. They usually live in temperate forests in the mountains of southwest China, where they subsist on bamboo, of which they need between 26 and 84 pounds per day.