China to Send Two Giant Pandas to Zoo Atlanta

Dragon Media News Desk

China will send two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to Zoo Atlanta under a wildlife conservation partnership. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at a White House welcome ceremony on Thursday that the pandas would arrive in the United States within days.

According to Xinhua, a 10-year conservation programme will operate under an agreement signed last year by the China Wildlife Conservation Association and Zoo Atlanta. Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, will travel from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province. The zoo has upgraded their habitat with technical assistance from Chinese experts.

China and the United States have a long history of cooperation involving giant pandas. Ling Ling and Xing Xing arrived in the United States in 1972, following then President Richard Nixon’s visit to China. A 1994 agreement between the Chinese wildlife association and the San Diego Zoo later established a formal conservation and research partnership.

Institutions in the two countries have worked together on panda behaviour, nutrition, genetics, breeding and disease prevention. The new programme is expected to continue conservation research and technical exchanges.