Pandas return to Atlanta after two-year break
Zoo Atlanta welcomed Ping Ping and Fu Shuang to a renovated enclosure, marking the end of a gap in its giant panda program.
By Tyler Khalil ·
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang munched bamboo and rested in their new habitat on Friday. The pair greeted a crowd of visitors at Zoo Atlanta, officially ending a two-year absence of giant pandas from the facility.
The animals arrived in September under a 10-year loan agreement from China. Both bears are six years old and were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. They spent the previous weeks adjusting to their surroundings before the public debut in the renovated Arthur M. Blank Panda Grove.
Rachel Sutherland, 8, extended her family vacation by a day to see the bears. The visitor from Sacramento, California, said she liked Ping Ping because the name reminded her of the color pink. The male panda has dark circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang has a protruding forehead.
The return of the pandas fills a void left in 2024. Four previous pandas returned to China that year, ending a 25-year partnership between the zoo and the country. Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, attended a news conference on Friday morning. He stated that the arrival marks the renewal of a decade-long bond between China and Zoo Atlanta.
Kevin Wei, an 18-year-old student at Georgia Tech, said he felt a personal connection to the bears. Wei is from Chengdu, the hometown of the pandas. He described the bond as familiar, allowing him to connect with China while living in the United States.
China has used panda loans as a tool of diplomacy for decades. The country deploys the bears as expressions of goodwill and lets agreements lapse when relations become strained. Zoo Atlanta is now one of three U.S. zoos housing the animals. The National Zoo in Washington accepted new pandas in October 2024, and the San Diego Zoo debuted two in August 2024.
Kim Herres, 76, has visited the zoo since the city first received pandas in 1999. She views the animals as a symbol of global efforts to protect wildlife. Herres expressed hope that the bears will stay, noting that she is glad they are back and hopes China will not retrieve them.
