Giant pandas are coming back to Zoo Atlanta after 2-year hiatus

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

In 2024, Atlantans said goodbye to pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang who had lived at the zoo since they arrived as 2-year-old cubs in 1999. They and their two offspring went back to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding after a big farewell celebration dubbed “Panda-Palooza” that fall.

This new agreement wasn’t a surprise. Zoo leadership previously told the AJC that they were hopeful Atlanta would have the opportunity to again become panda hosts in the future. Since the fall of 2024, the zoo has been upgrading and renovating its panda living quarters in anticipation of new arrivals, the China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a separate news release.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our Members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” said Raymond B. King, the zoo’s president and CEO since 2010, in Zoo Atlanta’s press release.

Zoo Atlanta did not have officials available for comment on Thursday evening after the news came out. The release did not offer details about the pandas or when they are coming to Atlanta. Based on the timetable of the panda pairs recently lent to the San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington D.C., the public may be able to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang before the end of the year.

For both the National Zoo and the San Diego Zoo, about seven months elapsed between the time the announcements were made and when the pandas were available to be seen by the public following a required quarantine period.

Zoo Atlanta, for about a year, was the only zoo in North America to have giant pandas. But the San Diego Zoo in the summer of 2024 welcomed Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, the first pandas to arrive in the United States in 21 years. Soon after, the National Zoo hosted Bao Li and Qing Bao, who made their public debut in January of last year.

For Zoo Atlanta, the absence of giant pandas marked a major juncture: the first time in a quarter century the zoo operated without its beloved pandas, which were reliable visitor magnets.

The partnership between Zoo Atlanta and China was also beneficial for China. Zoo Atlanta contributed $17 million over 25 years to panda conservation work in China, which has built more than 65 panda reserves. Pandas were upgraded from endangered to vulnerable in 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Yang Yang and Lun Lun, the original giant pandas lent to Zoo Atlanta in 1999, produced five litters and seven surviving cubs. The China Wildlife Conservation Association said this was the best breeding result among all China’s international giant panda agreements at different zoos in Europe and the United States over the past half century.