San Diego Zoo to bid farewell to giant pandas

LOS ANGELES, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The San Diego Zoo will return its last two giant pandas to China next month, said zoo officials Monday.

"In honoring the terms of the Zoo's conservation loan agreement with the People's Republic of China, 27-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, 6-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the San Diego Zoo in April and will be repatriated to their ancestral homeland," said zoo officials in a statement.

As the first panda on loan, Bai Yun, or White Cloud in English, first arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996 from China. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals. The name of her son, Xiao Liwu, means Little Gift in English.

"The San Diego Zoo was honored to be chosen by conservationists in China to work with them to develop a new model for species conservation," said Douglas G. Myers, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Global.

"The panda program we began together demonstrates how powerful these collaborative efforts can be. We are extremely grateful to China for sharing the pandas with us and offering us the chance to serve this species in a leadership role," he added.

Another panda at the San Diego Zoo, 28-year-old Gao Gao, returned to China in October. Gao Gao means High High in English.

The San Diego Zoo started working with giant pandas more than two decades ago when the species was on the verge of extinction. The Zoo became part of an international collaboration that included the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA), the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other accredited zoos and conservation organizations, in an unprecedented international effort to prevent panda extinction.

Zoo officials noted that over the past two decades, conservation scientists have been able to raise awareness for the plight of pandas in their native habitat.

Bai Yun, Gao Gao and Bai Yun's cubs-including her sixth cub Xiao Liwu-helped scientists learned a great deal about panda behavior, pregnancy, births, and maternal and geriatric care. This knowledge allowed them the ability to provide the necessary help to boost giant pandas' wild population in China to more than 2,000 individuals.

The giant panda, a conservation-reliant vulnerable species, only lives in a few mountain ranges in central China. Thanks to continuous protection, the numbers of giant pandas living in the wild has increased from 1,114 in the 1970s to 1,864, according to a data released by China's State Forestry and Grassland Administration in 2018.

The San Diego Zoo, located in Southern California, is globally recognized and a San Diego icon, hosting more than 4 million visitors each year.