Two giant pandas have arrived at their new home in D.C. after a long trip from China.
The pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, will reside at the National Zoo as part of a new agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.
The pair has been on a journey from China since Monday. They flew all night and stopped in Alaska to refuel before landing in D.C. Tuesday morning.
Bao Li is a male who was born on Aug. 4, 2021, and Qing Bao is a female who was born on Sept. 12, 2021.
They are the first pandas China has sent to D.C. in 24 years.
As part of the new panda loan agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, any offspring of the two pandas will be sent to China by the age of 4. The National Zoo will pay the association a $1 million annual fee, as all zoos that house pandas outside of China do, which it said will not come from federal funding.
The pandas will quarantine for at least 30 days at the zoo before they make their public debut.
The new agreement is effective through April 2034.
RELATED STORY | Giant pandas will be returning to the National Zoo in Washington
The zoo said giant pandas have been one of its biggest attractions since the first pair arrived in 1972 under the panda loan agreement with China. The popular Giant Panda Cam, which has garnered over 100 million views since it launched, will be back online after some upgrades.
But the fluffy creatures aren’t just there for looks. The National Zoo said it works with its partners in China to research the species and innovate ways to conserve them in the wild.
“For more than five decades, [the National Zoo] has created and maintained one of the world’s foremost giant panda conservation programs, helping move the panda from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’ on the global list of species at risk of extinction,” the National Zoo said in its initial announcement.
Last November, the U.S. waved a tearful goodbye to the three pandas that had called the National Zoo home for 23 years as Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji were sent back to China.
After the departure, the only remaining pandas in the U.S. until now had been at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, and those are still scheduled to return to their home country later this year after a pandemic-related delay.
Earlier in 2023, the Memphis Zoo returned its panda, Ya Ya, to China, and the San Diego Zoo’s giant pandas were returned in 2019.
The Chinese government didn’t explain why all of the pandas from the U.S. were being returned. It could have been simply that the loan agreements for the pandas had come to an end, but some say it was a reflection of the diplomatic tension between the two countries.
But now it seems that panda diplomacy has returned. In addition to the new pandas in D.C., the San Diego Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo both announced they would also be receiving giant pandas in renewed agreements.
The National Zoo said it is trying to raise $25 million in donations to renovate the panda exhibit, cover permit costs and more. The bears’ care costs like food, medicine and habitat needs are covered by federal funding.
