Meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, Atlanta's Newest Giant Pandas

It was a long 8,000-mile journey, but two Chinese pandas are finally home in Atlanta. Here is what we know about the newest additions to Zoo Atlanta.

Two Giant Pandas Arrive in Atlanta to Much Fanfare

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are home after a 16-hour journey from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The giant pandas have been quarantined for a month prior to their departure from the largest panda breeding facility in China. Ping Ping, a 6-year-old male, and Fu Shuang, a 5-year-old female, left China early Sunday on a Boeing 777 affectionately known as the FedEx Panda Express.

According to FedEx, ”The pandas traveled in custom-built crates and were the plane’s sole cargo, accompanied only by fresh bamboo, water, and an assortment of their favorite treats." The animals then enjoyed a police escort through metro Atlanta to the zoo.

It will be some time before you can meet these pandas yourself. The pandas will be quarantined for about a month inside a biosecure area of the zoo. The zoo is now just one of three facilities in the U.S. that are home to rare giant pandas.

Panda as a Diplomacy Tool

Pandas have long served as a diplomacy tool between the U.S. and China. Recent tensions between the two nations make their arrival on U.S. soil even more significant.

Ping Ping translates to "peace," while Fu Shuang means "double blessings." The pair are part of a long tradition of using the creatures to bring the two countries together. Coincidentally, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrived in the U.S. just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.

Xi said on Thursday that pandas represent an "envoy of friendship" between his country and the U.S. According to a 2022 Congressional Research Service analysis, the host zoos pay about $1 million per year for a pair of pandas. These agreements also typically require additional money to fund China's conservation goals.

China's state news agency confirmed that Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are expected to be on loan in Atlanta for about a decade. They will eventually return to China, but not before hopefully serving to repopulate the vulnerable species. Efforts to boost panda populations are working. While they were once designated as "endangered," the pandas are now considered to be "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2016.

A lot of this credit goes to China's Chengdu panda breeding research base, a facility that is home to about 240 of the animals. This equates to roughly one-third of the global panda population not out in the wild.  

Zookeepers specifically selected Ping Ping and Fu Shuang for the higher probability that they will reproduce. Experts look at their age, genetic profile, health, and personality in hopes of finding suitable mates. The pandas will be on display to the public once they have acclimated to their new surroundings.

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