BEIJING, April 27. /TASS/. China will send two giant pandas to California’s San Diego Zoo under a ten-year loan program as part of international cooperation on conservation of bamboo bears, the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) said on Saturday.
Two bears, male Yunchuan and female Xinbao, will head to the United States from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, which has been cooperating with the San Diego Zoo for more than 25 years.
In November 2023, giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their male cub Xiao Qi Ji were brought from the Washington Zoo back to China. The flight landed in the international airport of the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan province in the south-west of China. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were loaned to the United States 23 years ago and had four cubs. Three of them - Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei - were taken to China earlier.
The big panda is considered an unofficial symbol of China and is under state protection. Sending these animals to various countries has already become a tradition, which is often called "panda diplomacy." About 1,800 bamboo bears now live in natural conditions, mainly in the mountainous area of China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, where bamboo forests have been preserved. There are approximately 180 specimens in various nurseries and zoos. The Chinese authorities have set a goal of bringing the total population of pandas living in the wild to 2,000 or more by 2025.