Two giant pandas from China Arrived The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced Friday that efforts to protect the animals are part of ongoing conservation collaborations in Southern California.
In a brief statement, the alliance said the pandas, Yunchuan and Xinbao, would spend the next few weeks getting acclimatized to their new home in a private habitat at the San Diego Zoo and would not be available to the public.
Ken Born/San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance via The Associated Press
The panda is the first to arrive in the U.S. in 21 years, according to the coalition. In May, the National Zoo in Washington Announced The park also plans to receive two new pandas from China by the end of this year.
“They are being closely monitored by a team of wildlife health and care specialists who will decide when they can be released back into the public,” the coalition said.
A farewell ceremony was held earlier this week before the pandas departed China.
Ken Born/San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance via The Associated Press
Yun Chuan, a gentle, 5-year-old male with ties to California, was born to Bai Yun and Gao Gao at the San Diego Zoo in 2007, the Wildlife Alliance previously announced.
Xin Bao is a four-year-old female who is described as “a calm, witty and introverted with a lovely round face and big ears.”
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has a nearly 30-year partnership with a leading Chinese conservation organization focused on protecting and restoring giant pandas and the bamboo forests on which they depend.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association It has loaned pandas to the United States since 1972. Based on an agreement called “panda diplomacy.”
In 1987, the San Diego Zoo accepted two pandas for a 100-day stay, but eventually signed a 12-year contract and accepted two more pandas, named “Baiyun” and “Shishi”, in 1996. The contract continued to be extended, and a total of six pandas were born at the zoo. All of them had returned to China by 2019.
