SAN DIEGO—Wildlife fans and visitors at the San Diego Zoo can now see the two giant pandas recently flown to Southern California from China, starting on Aug. 8.
After more than a month’s adaption to their new home in San Diego, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao—the first pandas to enter the United States in 21 years—will make their public debut at the zoo’s new Panda Ridge.
“We are delighted to introduce Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to our San Diego Zoo community,” said Paul Baribault, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in a statement. “Our newest residents will bring joy to our visitors and symbolize the enduring spirit of international conservation efforts.”
San Diego Zoo said the panda pair has been acclimating to their home in the newly renovated exhibit, which is not only four times larger in space than the previous panda habitat in the zoo, but also closely resembles the mountainous forest ecosystems of their original habitat in China.
According to the zoo, Yun Chuan is nearly 5 years old and is described as mild-mannered, gentle, and lovable. He is the son of Zhen Zhen, who was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007 to parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao. The first character of his name, Yun, is a nod to his grandmother Bai Yun, who lived at the San Diego Zoo for 23 years.
Xin Bao is a nearly 4-year-old female and is described by the Zoo as a “gentle and witty introvert with a sweet round face and big ears.” Her name means a “new treasure of prosperity and abundance.”
San Diego Zoo was the first zoo in the United States to have a cooperative panda conservation program.
Panda Diplomacy
While many U.S. scientists, including those at the San Diego Zoo, have praised panda conservation efforts in collaboration with their Chinese counterparts, some political analysts said that these fluffy animals’ fates are determined not as much by conservation needs but by diplomatic needs.“That practice has evolved to reflect shifting domestic and international circumstances,” the report read. “The panda has become a diplomatic symbol for China, and serves to soften its authoritarian image.”
China first sent giant pandas to the U.S. in 1972—to the National Zoo in Washington D.C.—after President Richard Nixon’s visit to the country that year.
In the decade that followed, gifting giant pandas became China’s standard practice when forming diplomatic relationships with other countries.
In 1984, Beijing stopped gifting giant pandas for free and started a commercial rental model instead, leasing the animals to foreign zoos for short-term exhibitions.
Starting in late 1999, the short-term leasing model was replaced by long-term “collaborative research project” leases, usually for 10 years, that are renewable. If a panda gives birth to a cub, the annual rent would increase, and the cub would be returned to China at 3 or 4 years old.
According to the same report, hosting institutions typically pay China an annual fee of $1 million per pair of pandas.
Conservation efforts have helped increase the population of giant pandas from fewer than 1,000 to more than 1,800 in the wild and captivity, prompting the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List to downgrade the species from “endangered” to “vulnerable” in 2021.
In 2019, amid the intensified trade war between the United States and China, giant panda Bai Yun and its cub Xiao Liwu were taken back to China from the San Diego Zoo. Until May 2024, only four giant pandas were left in the U.S. at the Atlanta Zoo. However, at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in San Francisco last November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping signaled Beijing may send more pandas to the U.S.
San Diego mayor Todd Gloria welcomed the new furry residents by visiting China back in June to participate in a send-off ceremony for Yun Chuan and Xin Bao before they flew to their new home at the San Diego Zoo.
