With American zoos’ agreements with China set to expire at the end of next year, there will be no pandas in the country for the first time since 1972.
Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao QI Ji, three pandas currently housed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, will leave for China at the end of the year. The zoo claims this is due to a three-year contract it has with the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association.
The Smithsonian Institution typically renews contracts when the time comes, but this year’s attempts have yet to be successful.
The move comes as pandas have already been repatriated to zoos in Memphis, Atlanta and San Diego at the end of the year, marking the first time in 50 years that the United States will be without pandas.
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- When did the first panda arrive in the United States?
- How many pandas are left in the United States?
When did the first panda arrive in the United States?
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Some believe that pandas in the United States are returning to China due to tensions between the United States and China.
China gifted the United States its first panda in 1972. President Nixon established normal formal relations with China, after which China gave a gift, a move some have dubbed “panda diplomacy.”
China has been loaning pandas to other nations for decades in an effort to strengthen its relations with those nations.
According to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Britain will also lose two pandas from Edinburgh Zoo in December if new contracts are not signed.
How many pandas are left in the United States?
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The last panda family to reside in the United States will soon be moving to Atlanta, but those four will be leaving soon, too.
Ya Lun and Xi Lun’s contracts at Zoo Atlanta expire in early 2024, the organization said in a statement. Ya Lun and Xi Lun’s parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, will remain at Zoo Atlanta until the end of 2024, when their loans will expire.
The zoo stated in an April statement that “discussions have not yet taken place with partners in China regarding the status of Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda program beyond the end of the loan in 2024.”
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The San Diego Zoo’s pandas have reportedly already returned to China, and if not, they will most likely do so by the end of the year.
The zoo said the ROC’s credit agreement with it had also come to an end.
A giant panda named Bai Yun and her son, Xiao Liwu, were returned to China. Ya Ya, a panda from the Memphis Zoo, returned to China in April this year.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn