Pair of giant pandas from China set to shack up at Atlanta zoo

A pair of giant pandas who have never met are about to become roommates as part of a decade-long conservation partnership between U.S. and Chinese zoos, announced ahead of President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China.

Male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang will fly from their current home in Chengdu, China, to another panda sanctuary before completing an 8,000-mile journey to the U.S., where they will shack up at Zoo Atlanta.

The pandas’ travel date has not been announced, but the partnership between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association follows a successful 25-year conservation agreement that ended in 2024.

The initial announcement came weeks ahead of Trump’s scheduled visit to China this month.

“Zoo Atlanta is delighted and honored to yet again be trusted as stewards of this treasured species and to partner with the China Wildlife Conservation Association on the continued conservation and research efforts that are the most important outcomes of this cooperation,” Raymond B. King, president and CEO, said in a statement last month.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” King continued.

The Georgia-based Zoo has a strong track record in panda conservation, with seven offspring born to another pair of Chinese pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, between 2006 and 2016.

Their two youngest cubs, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, left Atlanta for the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in October 2024; the pair’s first five offspring also live there.

Giant pandas are found only in the wild in China, according to the WWF, and the country carefully controls where it distributes the species, often lending pandas to other nations while retaining ownership, even of those born internationally.

In 2024, it sent two giant pandas to San Diego and two others to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., NBC News reported.

The species faces numerous threats to its survival, namely habitat loss. Establishing new reserves is integral to its longevity, according to the WWF and Zoo Atlanta.

The Chinese government has invested “significant resources” in panda protection and established 67 giant panda reserves, the Atlanta Zoo says, adding that 72 per cent of wild giant pandas — a species classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — are “strictly protected.”

Giant pandas have been a symbol of the U.S.-China friendship ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, and China has long used its giant panda loan program as a tool of Beijing’s soft power diplomacy worldwide.

The association previously stated that the new round of cooperation will help China and the U.S. to advance in areas ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific exchanges.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading international organization, removed pandas from its endangered species list in 2016 and classified them as “vulnerable” instead.

— with files from The Associated Press.