American pandamonium is coming to an end.
The last remaining giant panda in the United States is scheduled to return to China later this year, more than 20 years after it captured hearts in Atlanta and other parts of the world.
The Atlanta Zoo is preparing to return Beloved pandas Runrun and Yangyang and their twin cubs Yarun and Shirun will be heading to China by the end of the year.
Four black and white bears have become the only pandas in the United States since the three at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., were sent to their homeland in November after living there for 10 years.
Runrun and Yangyang arrived in Atlanta in 1999 on 25-year contracts. Expires at the end of this year. Ya Lung and Shi Lung were born at the zoo in 2016.
“The terms of Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda loan with China have always included the condition that all descendants of Lun Lun and Yang Yang will travel to China upon reaching adulthood, subject to the terms of the loan agreement,” the zoo said in a statement. mentioned in. November.
“All five siblings of Ya Lun and Xi Lun have done so and are currently living in China.”
China lends pandas overseas as a gesture of goodwill, but retains ownership of the animals and their cubs.
Amid rising tensions between the two countries, US zoos are sending pandas back to China after loan agreements expired.
The Memphis Zoo returned its last surviving panda in April 2023, and the San Diego Zoo returned its bear in 2019.
It won’t be long before the US welcomes a new panda.The San Diego Zoo announced last month that it would. bring a pair of pandas — Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — will arrive in the country for the first time in decades later this year, preferably over the summer.
San Francisco comes after Mayor London Breed visited China last month, which California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones dubbed a “panda chase,” and as the city “grappled with rising crime and homelessness.” The zoo also plans to bring in pandas.
New York City supermarket mogul and billionaire John Catsimatidis said last year that he was trying to persuade China to lend pandas to the Central Park Zoo.
Meanwhile, for those who can’t see the pandas before leaving Zoo Atlanta, you can watch live pandas frolicking in the park. panda cam.
