Washington’s newest diplomats landed Tuesday, as two giant pandas arrived at the National Zoo.
The 3-year-old pandas, Bao Li, a male, and Qing Bao, a female, will debut to the public Jan. 24, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute announced. The panda cam’s livestream also starts then, running 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily to let viewers check up on them.
Before making their grand first appearance, Bao Li and Qing Bao had to enter quarantine. The isolation helps prevent them from spreading any possible disease or parasites to other zoo residents, though the two will have each other’s company and access to areas of the National Zoo panda house.
The panda house, bird house and Asia Trail exhibits will be closed until the public debut of the pandas, the National Zoo said.
The two pandas landed at Washington Dulles International Airport following a 19-hour flight over the Pacific Ocean from Chengdu, China, on the FedEx “Panda Express,” and a pit stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
The arrival of the new pandas was arranged via a 10-year agreement between the National Zoo and its Chinese partners announced in May. The bears belong to China, with cubs sent back by the time they turn 4 and with the National Zoo paying $1 million a year for the privilege.
Bao Li’s arrival marks the return of his family lineage to the National Zoo. His mother, Bao Bao, was born there in 2013 and returned to China in 2017. Her parents, female Mei Xiang and male Tian Tian, were the last breeding pair to arrive in D.C. from China in 2000, staying 23 years.
The National Zoo was left bereft of its black-and-white, bamboo-loving bears in November when Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and male cub Xiao Qi Ji, the fourth surviving cub born at the National Zoo, left for China.
All of the National Zoo pandas follow in the paw prints of male Hsing-Hsing and female Ling-Ling, sent to the facility after being given to the U.S. by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972 as part of President Richard Nixon’s detente policy toward the communist country — the beginning of “panda diplomacy.”
The aim of China’s loans of pandas to zoos around the globe is to preserve the species through collaborative research and conservation efforts. As with the Nixon visit, China uses the pandas to build political goodwill — and signal displeasure.
Many Washingtonians were upset by last year’s departure of 26-year-old Tian Tian, 25-year-old Mei Xiang and 3-year-old Xiao Qi Ji as political tension between Beijing and Washington escalated.
Leases to U.S. zoos were set to expire, though they could have easily been extended in a less-tense political environment.
• Sean Salai contributed to this report.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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