New panda pair arrives at Atlanta zoo under 10-year agreement
Giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang have arrived in Atlanta from China under a 10-year conservation loan agreement. The pair will be supported by Chinese zookeepers and veterinarians as they settle into Zoo Atlanta, which previously housed pandas until the return of its former pair to Chengdu in 2024.
Two giant pandas have arrived in Atlanta to begin a new residency at Zoo Atlanta under a 10-year conservation agreement with China, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV. The male panda, Ping Ping, and the female, Fu Shuang, left Chengdu in southwestern China on Sunday on a chartered flight and arrived at Atlanta International Airport. Their arrival came shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping completed a three-day state visit to the United States.
Chinese zookeepers and veterinarians had travelled to the United States ahead of the pair to help train them and support their adjustment to their new surroundings, CCTV reported. Ping Ping was born in March 2020 and Fu Shuang was born seven months later, both at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Their names mean “peace” and “double blessings”.
The zoo said the agreement would enable it to resume its contribution to giant panda conservation. Zoo Atlanta previously housed pandas from 1999 to 2024, when the pair Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their cubs returned to China’s Chengdu base. China’s loans of pandas to foreign institutions are widely described as “panda diplomacy”.
The animals, along with cubs born abroad, are required to return to China under the loan arrangements. The giant panda’s status was lowered from endangered to vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature after China’s conservation efforts. Other pandas are currently on loan to the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington.
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