Giant pandas returning to DC

Giant pandas from China will return to Washington later this year, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) announced Wednesday.

A pair of 2-year-old pandas — Bao Li and Qing Bao — will arrive at by the end of the year as part of a new 10-year research and breeding agreement, per the National Zoo.

It comes about six months since the city’s remaining three giant pandas were returned to China upon the expiration of a previous agreement.

Bao Li already has ties to D.C. as the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, two of the pandas who left the National Zoo last year after 23 years in the District.

“We’re thrilled to announce the next chapter of our breeding and conservation partnership begins by welcoming two new bears, including a descendant of our beloved panda family, to Washington, D.C.,” said Brandie Smith, NZCBI’s John and Adrienne Mars director.

“This historic moment is proof positive our collaboration with Chinese colleagues has made an irrefutable impact,” she added.

The zoo did not provide an exact timeline for the pandas’ arrival or public debut date, but it said they will be quarantined in a “panda house” for at least 30 days upon their arrival. They will then have a few weeks to settle into their new habitat before visitors will be able to see them, officials said.

First lady Jill Biden joined Smith and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III in a video announcement, saying she “can’t wait to celebrate this historic moment” when the pandas return.

The United States’s so-called “panda diplomacy” with Beijing began under an agreement brokered by former President Nixon in 1972.

It came after former first lady Patricia Nixon discussed her “fondness” for giant pandas to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at a dinner in Beijing, per the National Zoo. Premier Enlai then gifted two giant pandas to America, which Nixon and his wife chose to house in the National Zoo.

The two pandas spent 20 years together at the zoo, which worked with China to study the animals’ biology, behavior and diseases in a joint effort to preserve the species.

Beijing has lent out 65 pandas to 19 countries through “cooperative research programs” that aim to protect the species, according to The Associated Press. The pandas are usually returned to China when they reach old age, or when cubs born abroad turn around age 3 or 4.  

Upon the three pandas’ departure last Winter from D.C., the National Zoo hinted at a potential return without disclosing many details.

Some foreign policy experts at the time noted it was indicative of growing diplomatic tensions between China and several Western governments, though the zoo last year said it was simply time for the panda parents to go home.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a visit to San Francisco late last year, suggested more giant pandas could come to the United States, calling the animals “envoys of friendship” between the nations’ peoples.

Zoo Atlanta said last week it was preparing to send its giant pandas back to China later this year, following other zoos in the U.S. They are the last remaining pandas currently in the U.S., though this will soon change in the wake of Wednesday’s announcement. 

Earlier this year, the San Diego Zoo announced plans to welcome back a pair of pandas from China as soon as next month.

Updated at 9:09 a.m. EDT