Atlanta panda fans, it’s time to prepare for a heartfelt farewell. The city’s four beloved giant pandas, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun, will be sent back to China later this year. This move comes as Zoo Atlanta’s agreement with China is set to expire in late 2024, the zoo announced in a news release on Friday.
“Zoo Atlanta has applied for the pandas’ international travel permit, and the bears are expected to travel to China sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024,” the zoo stated, noting that the exact timing of their return will be determined in collaboration with official partners in China.
While Zoo Atlanta remains dedicated to the conservation and long-term stewardship of giant pandas, no discussions have yet taken place with Chinese partners regarding the future of the zoo’s giant panda program after the current agreement expires, the release added.
Zoo Atlanta’s panda program has been highly successful in contributing to the species’ population. Since 2006, the zoo has seen the birth of seven giant pandas, including two pairs of twins. Lun Lun and Yang Yang are the proud parents of Ya Lun and Xi Lun. Their other offspring have already been returned to the Chengdu Research Center of Giant Panda Breeding in China.
In recent years, pandas from the San Diego Zoo, Memphis Zoo, and Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, have also been returned to China. However, new pandas are expected to arrive in the United States. In April, it was announced that China would send giant pandas to live at San Francisco’s zoo for the first time. The San Diego Zoo also announced in February that it would receive two giant pandas from China, marking the first new panda loans to the US in two decades.
Pandas have symbolized China-US relations since 1972, when Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the Smithsonian National Zoo following President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China. In 2023, Chinese leader Xi Jinping referred to the bamboo-eating bears as “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”
According to the World Wildlife Fund, just over 1,800 giant pandas remain in the wild. Listed as vulnerable, they are described as the world’s rarest bear. Habitat destruction and fragmentation have significantly contributed to the decline of this species.