The long-awaited return of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo appears imminent after Chinese officials held a formal farewell ceremony for Yun Chuan and Xin Bao on Wednesday.
Exact travel details have not been released, but the pandas are expected to board a flight for California “soon after the farewell ceremony,” the zoo said.
After they arrive in San Diego, the duo will be quarantined and off public viewing for several weeks, officials said.
They will be the first pandas to enter the U.S. in 21 years, the zoo said.
This photo released by the San Diego Zoo shows giant panda Xin Bao, one of the pandas coming to the San Diego Zoo under a conservation loan. (Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo via AP)
Leaders of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria went to China this week to participate in the ceremony, which was held at the China Conservation & Research Center for Giant Pandas in the Sichuan province.
U.S. and Chinese dignitaries also attended the event, which included cultural performances, video salutations from students and a gift exchange by conservation partners, the zoo said.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to the San Diego Zoo,” San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance President and CEO Paul Baribault said in a statement. “This farewell celebrates their journey and underscores a collaboration between the United States and China on vital conservation efforts.”
He said the zoo’s lengthy partnership with Chinese wildlife officials has advanced panda conservation and “we look forward to continuing our work together to ensure the survival and thriving of this iconic species.”
According to the mayor’s office, Gloria left Los Angeles for China early Tuesday. While in China, the mayor planned to attend meetings in Beijing with senior officials at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. He is expected to return Sunday morning.
The zoo will cover the cost of the mayor’s trip, a mayoral spokesperson said.
The pandas are coming to San Diego under a conservation agreement signed in February. The zoo has been making preparations for months in anticipation of the pandas’ arrival.
The hope is the panda pair eventually produce a cub or two. The male, Yun Chuan, is the son of Zhen Zhen, a female panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007. Xin Bao, the female, was born at the Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an import permit to the zoo June 6. The agency regulates the movement of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In its permit application, the zoo broadly outlined its proposed conservation research, which seeks to help captive pandas as well as those in the wild.
The zoo said it remodeled the original panda habitat to provide “a larger footprint” than what was previously available. Workers also renovated a second, adjacent enclosure for panda use. The zoo said it has the capacity to house up to four animals.
Pandas first came to the San Diego Zoo in 1987 under an exhibition loan. They returned in 1996 under a conservation agreement focused on improving panda reproduction. The zoo’s program resulted in six cubs. Its scientists also helped develop techniques credited with keeping young pandas alive, including developing panda milk formula.
The zoo bade farewell to its pandas in 2019.
China owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos and for decades has lent out the animals as a sign of friendship or to strengthen national ties, a practice known as “panda diplomacy.”
After the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., sent back its three pandas in November, the only pandas remaining in the U.S. were at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia.
Hopes for a new panda loan took shape late last year after Chinese President Xi Jinping told San Francisco business leaders in November that California would get pandas in 2024 — and mentioned San Diego by name.
Chinese wildlife officials have since signed panda-loan agreements with the National Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo.
San Diego will pay $1 million a year for the pandas, with the money earmarked to support Chinese panda conservation efforts.
