The National Zoo in Washington is welcoming two new giant pandas this year, Bao Li and Qin Bao.

But now a new era has dawned, and a new generation of zoo-goers have the chance to experience the excitement of panda-mania and the hope that the new bears will one day have cubs.

“We’re so happy right now,” zoo director Brandi Smith said. “It’s hard to put into words.”

“This program is very important for giant pandas,” she said in a phone interview last week. “We are working to save an endangered species.”

Smith said the giant pandas draw millions of tourists to Washington, D.C., and millions more watch the zoo’s pandas on panda cameras. “It’s a great feeling for us and a great feeling for them,” he said.

The announcement came as a surprise given the tense relationship between the United States and China, which owns or leases all the giant pandas in U.S. zoos, and given how recently Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their son Xiao Qizhi departed late last year.

The zoo said in a statement that the new pandas will be kept on a 10-year lease until April 2034, during which time the zoo will pay the China Wildlife Conservation Society $1 million per year.

“We didn’t expect it to happen so quickly,” Smith said, “but we have a great working relationship with our colleagues in China, and the discussions to bring the pandas back have gone really smoothly.”

Smith said he has yet to see the new pandas in person, but a delegation from the zoo visited the pandas during an official visit to China earlier this month.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said James Steele, the zoo’s veterinary superintendent, who was part of the delegation. “They’re both going to be amazed.” [the] Not just the audience here in DC, but the American audience as a whole.”

“Bao Li, the male, is very similar in temperament to our previous pandas because of his relatives,” he said. “You’re seeing some of their personalities coming out. He likes to roll. He likes to splash around in water. He likes to eat.”

As for the female, he said, “Qingbao is a little more reserved.”

“Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji [to China last year] “This was just the end of one chapter,” he said in a phone interview last week. “We now have an opportunity to start writing a new one.”

“It’s been a really long time since we’ve had two young pandas, and it really feels like we have two baby pandas,” said Laurie Thompson, a veteran giant panda keeper and assistant curator overseeing the care of the new pair.

“The little ones are definitely full of energy, so I’m excited about it,” she said in a phone interview last week.

Zoo director Smith said the two will not be “playmates.”

“They’re not social animals,” she said, noting that they don’t live in large groups in the wild.

“So we’re not going to put them together,” she said, “but we’re going to create an opportunity for them to glance at each other and smell each other.”

The zoo said the animals may eventually be able to breed, either naturally or through artificial insemination.

It’s not clear when the new animals will arrive, but zoo spokeswoman Annalisa Meyer said the zoo prefers to ship animals such as giant pandas in cooler months. They’ll definitely arrive in the fall, but the zoo wouldn’t give an exact date for safety reasons, she said.

Asked if Bao Li was selected to come to the zoo because of his ties to Washington, Smith said in part, yes.

The main goal is to support genetic diversity and the overall breeding and conservation of giant pandas, she said, but when the opportunity arose to bring in a panda with a local pedigree, “it was the obvious choice,” she said.

The zoo announced that FedEx will transport the bears and their Chinese caretakers to the United States by air and ground at no cost to them.

To reduce the risk of introducing parasites or diseases to other animals, the animals will be kept in isolation in the panda enclosure for at least 30 days after their arrival.

After quarantine, the bears will remain quiet in their new habitat for a few more weeks before being released to the public, once zoo officials feel the bears are ready for an influx of visitors.

According to the zoo, Bao Li, pronounced “bo-li,” means “treasure” or “lively” in Mandarin, while Qin Bao, pronounced “chin-bou,” means “green” or “treasure.”

Smith said the animals will need to learn some English, but will mainly respond to hand signals and will gradually pick up the sound of their handlers’ voices.

When it comes to diet, giant pandas at the National Zoo traditionally eat specialty panda biscuits — in China they were given a type of panda bread — and nutritionists at the zoo asked for the recipe, Smith said.

The zoo hopes that the pandas will eventually breed and have cubs. Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between four and seven years of age.

A joint research and breeding agreement was signed between Smith and Wu Minglu, secretary-general of the China Wildlife Conservation Society.

“The new pandas will enable Smithsonian scientists to find more effective methods of natural and captive breeding,” the zoo said in a statement. As the zoo learned with the breeding of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, ​​giant panda breeding is notoriously quirky and unpredictable.

Over two decades, the couple have had four cubs: Tai Shan, a male, was born in 2005 and sent to China in 2010; Bao Bao, born in 2013 and sent to China in 2017; Bei Bei, a male, was born in 2015 and sent to China in 2019; and Xiao Qizhi, a male, was born in 2020.

By agreement, bear cubs born in U.S. zoos are sent to China when they are around 4 years old. Mei Xiang, 25, and Tian Tian, ​​26, returned after their leases expired.

The zoo announced that the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat will be undergoing its first renovation in more than a decade, adding a new rock area with shallow pools of water, bamboo groves for foraging, and climbing structures.

The Giant Panda Camera, which has been suspended since last year, is scheduled to resume after the pandas arrive.

The zoo also announced it will solicit $25 million in public and corporate donations over the next 10 years to support the renovations and other parts of its giant panda program.

The Smithsonian’s 163-acre zoo in northwest Washington is home to 2,200 animals from 400 species. It attracts about 1.9 million visitors annually. Admission is free. The museum’s Conservation Biology Institute, located on 3,200 acres near Front Royal, Virginia, conducts breeding, veterinary and conservation research in a rural setting.

On the sunny morning of Nov. 8, just six months had passed since the zoo’s last three black-and-white bears were carried out of the zoo’s panda enclosure in metal travel cases for the last time.

Zookeepers cried as the animals were forklifted into FedEx trucks for the 9,000-mile flight from Dulles International Airport to China.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how I would feel if these animals were gone,” zoo director Smith said shortly before the animals left.

The zoo’s giant panda story began in February 1972, when President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon made a historic visit to Cold War-era Communist China.

At a dinner in Beijing, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai promised Mrs. Nixon that China would donate several giant pandas to the United States as a gesture of friendship.

Later that year, two other giant pandas, a female named Ling Ling and a male named Xin Xin, both around 18 months old, arrived at the zoo.

Ling Ling died suddenly in 1992, and the sick Xin Xin was euthanized in November 1999. The zoo was without any giant pandas after that until Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in December 2000.

Editor: Maria Grod. Visual Editor: Tara McCarty. Design and Illustration: Laura Padilla Castellanos. Design Editor: Christian Font. Photo Editor: Mark Miller. Video Editor: Hyojung Kim. Copy Editor: Panfilo Garcia.