Two pandas are expected to arrive Oct. 15 in Washington, D.C., where they will live for the next 10 years, becoming the first panda bears to be sent to Washington from China in 24 years, as part of a renewed diplomatic agreement with the United States.
Bao Li, a 3-year-old male, and Qing Bao, a 3-year-old female, will remain at the Smithsonian National Zoo as part of a 20-year breeding and conservation program that has helped move pandas from endangered to vulnerable.
“We have accomplished so much. One of our jobs was to crack the code on giant panda reproduction. If you want to save a species, you have to make more of them,” Smithsonian National Zoo panda curator Brandie Smith said in a TODAY segment that aired on Oct. 15.
The zoo’s panda exhibit has been without the animals after the zoo returned its final three pandas in 2023, in accordance with China’s request to do so. The zoo has been working to welcome its new pandas, by guaranteeing edible bamboo and updating its facilities with climbing structures, rocks, hammocks and pools.
Bao Li will continue his bloodline’s lineage in the U.S., as he will mark the third generation in his family to stay at the zoo. His grandparents were sent there in 2000, while his mother was born there — the only female cub to be born at the zoo.
The first Chinese pandas came to the U.S. in 1972 after President Nixon’s landmark trip to China. The loan agreement, however, expired last year.
The zoo, which will be closed Oct. 15, announced in May it will welcome the pandas. It has not announced any specific date when the pandas, who will be quarantined for 30 days after arriving, will make their debut to the public.
Other zoos in the U.S. have seen the species come and go. On Oct. 12, four pandas at Zoo Atlanta returned to China, while two others made their debut at the San Diego Zoo in August. The San Francisco Zoo also announced earlier this year that it’s readying for pandas to return there, as well.
