ATLANTA — Panda enthusiasts are expected to line up at Zoo Atlanta on Friday to watch the first public appearance of a pair of new giant pandas.
Pingping, a man, and Fu Shuang, a woman, arrived from China in September as part of a ten-year loan agreement.
After adapting to its habitat, the 6-year-old giant panda will greet visitors at the newly renovated Arthur Blanc Panda Park.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Pingping had obvious dark circles around her eyes, while Fu Shuang’s forehead was a bit protruding. Both were born at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Chengdu, China.
The zoo’s giant panda enclosure has been empty for the past two years after four more giant pandas were returned to China from Zoo Atlanta, ending a 25-year partnership amid strained relations between the two countries.
“The return of giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta is an exciting moment for our city as we once again become home to one of the world’s most beloved animals,” Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot and one of the city’s largest philanthropists, said in a statement.
China has long used giant pandas as part of its global diplomacy, deploying them in loan programs as a show of goodwill and letting loan agreements lapse when tensions arise.
Zoo Atlanta is one of three zoos in the United States currently housing the popular bamboo chewers.
The National Zoo in Washington will return three giant pandas to China in 2023, and will receive new pandas “Baoli” and “Qingbao” in October 2024. The San Diego Zoo introduced two giant pandas for the first time in August 2024.
Ten years ago, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable, reflecting the growing number of giant pandas in the wild in China.