A pair of large pandas from China will quickly be housed on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo in Washington DC, the zoo has introduced.
Two-year-old male panda Bao Li and two-year-old feminine panda Qing Bao are set to reach within the US capital later this 12 months.
Information of their coming arrival was introduced with a video on Wednesday that includes First Woman Jill Biden, who known as it a “historic second”.
The transfer marks the newest chapter of China’s lengthy historical past of panda diplomacy with the US, and comes regardless of tense relations between the 2 international locations.
It additionally comes six months after a household of three pandas was returned to China from the Nationwide Zoo.
Of their announcement, the zoo mentioned one of many incoming bears – Bao Li – is a descendent of that household.
“This historic second is proof optimistic that our collaboration with Chinese language colleagues has made an irrefutable affect,” mentioned zoo director Brandie Smith.
The arrival of the bears is a results of a brand new settlement signed with the China Wildlife Conservation Affiliation (CWSA), the zoo mentioned.
It includes the switch of two large pandas really useful for breeding to be below the care of the Nationwide Zoo for a decade.
In the meantime, the Nationwide Zoo can pay a $1m (£790,000) annual price to the CWSA to assist their analysis and conservation efforts.
Each pandas and any of their offspring will stay below the possession of China, and any cubs born will probably be moved again to China by the age of 4.
The Nationwide Zoo mentioned it should make one other announcement as soon as the pandas are able to be considered by the general public.
They’re resulting from arrive within the metropolis by the top of this 12 months.
Pandas have been housed on the Washington DC zoo for over 5 a long time and are a draw for hundreds of thousands of holiday makers in addition to followers from all over the world who watch the bears on-line on the zoo’s panda cam.
The animals have lengthy symbolised heat relations with China, which first gifted a pair of large pandas to the US after Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 journey to Beijing.
In 2023, China recalled 4 pandas from the US – together with the three that had been housed on the Nationwide Zoo – and two others from the Edinburgh Zoo, as relations between Beijing and the West grew to become more and more rocky.
Along with the pair despatched to the Nationwide Zoo, the San Diego Zoo introduced earlier this 12 months that it’ll additionally obtain a panda pair.
Specialists have mentioned China’s renewed panda diplomacy is likely to be an indication of Beijing exerting “tender energy”, as the 2 international locations work to rebuild their relationship regardless of variations on financial and political points.
