They may not be running for president or have won any Olympic medals, but two California celebrities are getting a lot of attention this week.
A pair of giant pandas from China will be introduced to the public on Thursday at the San Diego Zoo. They are the first pandas to come to the USA in 21 years. Five-year-old Yun Chuan and four-year-old Xin Bao are causing a lot of excitement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom rode the wildlife wave on Wednesday, declaring 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 the famous Southern California zoo built for its last pair of pandas, which returned to China in 2019.
Since China first loaned pandas to the National Zoo in Washington DC in 1972 as a sign of kindness to former President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat Nixon, the friendly ambassadors have been considered an important part of diplomacy between the two countries.
Following growing tensions between the two countries five years ago, China recalled many of its pandas from the United States. Today, the only remaining ones are at the Atlanta Zoo.
But now a rapprochement between the pandas seems to be underway.
Last November, during talks with President Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China would send new pandas to America as “envoys of friendship.”
Then 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 the zoo builds a panda enclosure. The city is trying to raise $25 million for the project by soliciting donations from prominent companies and philanthropists – from SalesForce to Google.
“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 I am grateful for it. I know I join many who can’t wait to see her in San Francisco.”
Likewise, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute announced in May that two giant pandas will come to the zoo in Washington, DC by the end of 2024.
The pair from San Diego arrived in late June. Zoo officials say they have adjusted well to their new surroundings.
“(Yun Chuan) loves his bamboo. He’s really comfortable in his habitat. He’s exploring everything and he’s curious,” Megan Owen, vice president of wildlife and conservation science at the San Diego Zoo, told “Good Morning America” on Tuesday.
Owen said the zoo has grown eight different species of bamboo as food for the bears, who can eat 40 pounds or more a day.
“We give each of our pandas a choice so they can tell us what they like best,” she said. “And we have to balance that with the type of bamboo that is most nutritious for the bears.”
Pandas typically grow to weigh up to 113 kilograms and be 1.80 meters long. Due to deforestation and population growth in China, their home country, their numbers are slowly increasing due to conservation efforts. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded their status from “critically endangered” to “vulnerable.” Today, there are about 1,800 pandas left in the wild and over 200 in captivity.
San Diego Zoo and city officials are warning of heavy traffic in the first few days around Balboa Park, where the zoo is located, and are urging visitors to use public transportation or carpool.
The zoo is not disclosing how many new visitors it expects. China typically charges U.S. zoos $1 million a year for 10 years to borrow the pandas. When pandas first came to the San Diego Zoo in 1987, they attracted two million visitors that year.
Officials in both countries hope the new couple will give birth to a cub.
The zoo plans to set up a “panda cam” soon so the public can get a glimpse of the fluffy pair. Until then, zoo visitors can see the pandas by purchasing a timed ticket to Panda Ridge as part of their zoo admission, joining a line when those time slots are full, or by paying $92 to $115 per person for a special 60-minute early morning tour with a zoo expert.
For more information visit https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/giant-pandas/visit
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