Giant pandas return to California for the first time since 2019

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They aren’t running for president and they haven’t won any Olympic medals. But two California celebrities are getting a whole lot of attention this week.

The first new pandas to enter the United States in 21 years — Yun Chuan, a 5-year-old male, and Xin Bao, a 4-year-old female — are generating a frenzy of excitement as the pair of giant pandas from China make their public debut Thursday at the San Diego Zoo.

Gov. Gavin Newsom rode the wildlife wave Wednesday, proclaiming Thursday “California Panda Day,” and announcing that he and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, will attend the opening of Panda Ridge at the San Diego Zoo. The new habitat for the bears is four times the size of the previous panda enclosure that the famed Southern California zoo built for its last pair, which returned to China in 2019.

Since 1972, when China first loaned pandas to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., as part of a gesture of friendliness to former President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat Nixon, the affable ambassadors have been considered an important part of diplomacy with the U.S.

After growing tension between the two countries five years ago, China recalled many of its pandas from the U.S., and today the only ones remaining are at the Atlanta Zoo.

But a panda rapprochement now appears to be underway.

In San Francisco last November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during talks with President Biden that China would send new pandas to America as “envoys of friendship.”

In April, San Francisco Mayor London Breed signed an agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to bring two pandas to the San Francisco Zoo in 2025, after it builds a panda enclosure. The city is working to raise $25 million for the project by asking prominent companies and philanthropists — from SalesForce to Google — to contribute.

“We are ready to welcome visitors from all over the world to our beautiful zoo,” Breed said in April. “This is a momentous opportunity, and one I am grateful for. I know I join so many who can’t wait to see them in San Francisco.”

Similarly, in May, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute announced two giant pandas will be coming to the zoo in Washington, D.C. by the end of 2024.

The San Diego pair arrived in late June. They have been acclimating well to their new surroundings, zoo officials say.

“(Yun Chuan) loves his bamboo. He’s really comfortable in his habitat. He explores, and he’s curious,” Megan Owen, vice president of wildlife and conservation science for the San Diego Zoo told “Good Morning America” on Tuesday.

Owen said the zoo has grown eight different species of bamboo for the bears to eat. They can eat 40 pounds or more a day.

“We give each of our pandas a choice so that they can tell us which are their favorites,” she said. “And we need to balance that with what are the most nutritious species of bamboo for the bears.”

Pandas typically grow to up to 250 pounds and reach 6 feet in length. Under pressure from deforestation and population growth in China, their native country, their numbers have slowly been increasing due to conservation efforts. In 2016, they were upgraded from endangered to vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Today there are about 1,800 in the wild and more than 200 in captivity.

San Diego Zoo officials, and San Diego city leaders are warning of heavy traffic around Balboa Park, where the zoo is located, for the first few days and are urging visitors to take public transportation or carpool.

The zoo isn’t saying how many new visitors it expects. China typically charges U.S. zoos $1 million a year for 10 years to have the pandas on loan. In 1987, the first time pandas came to San Diego Zoo, they drew 2 million visitors that year.

Officials in both countries hope the new pair will give birth to a cub.

The zoo expects to set up a “panda cam” soon so the public can look in on the fuzzy couple. Until then, visitors to the zoo can see the pandas by getting a first-come-first-served timed ticket to Panda Ridge as part of their zoo admission, by waiting in a stand-by line when those timed slots are full, or by paying $92 to $115 a person for a 60-minute early morning special tour with a zoo expert.

For more information, go to https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/giant-pandas/visit

Yun Chuan, one of two Pandas at San Diego Zoo on Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 in San Diego, enjoys eating a fresh batch of bamboo placed in his enclosure. The zoo opens the Panda Ridge habitat to the public on Thursday Aug. 8th. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Originally Published: August 7, 2024 at 3:32 p.m.

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