Giant Pandas Could Soon Return To San Diego Zoo

SAN DIEGO, CA — Giant pandas could soon return to the San Diego Zoo.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced Thursday that it signed a cooperative agreement with China Wildlife Conservation Association and filed a permit application with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so that giant pandas could return to the San Diego Zoo roughly five years after the last pandas were sent back to China.

If all permits and requirements are approved, two pandas, a male and a female, could arrive in San Diego as early as the end of summer, according to The Associated Press.

"San Diego is excited to once again host giant pandas," San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said on social media. "I'm grateful to the San Diego Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association for continuing our successful partnership to protect the iconic and beloved pandas."

China recalled almost all of its pandas that were on loan to zoos in the U.S. after relations between the two countries soured in recent years. Cooperation between China and the U.S. has led to the possibility of pandas returning to zoos, including the San Diego Zoo.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association also signed a cooperation agreement with a zoo in Madrid, Spain, and is in discussions with zoos in Washington, D.C. and Vienna, Austria.

"We are humbled by the potential opportunity of continuing our collaborative conservation efforts to secure the future for giant pandas," said Dr. Megan Owen, vice president of conservation science.

"As such, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is taking important steps to ensure we are prepared for a potential return," Owen said. "This includes sharing our detailed conservation plans with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure alignment for the greater benefit of giant pandas."

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization that operates the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, has a nearly 30-year conservation partnership with research collaborators in China focused on protecting and recovering giant pandas.

One of the pandas China is reportedly considering sending to the San Diego Zoo is a female descendent of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, two pandas that previously were on loan to the zoo.

Bai Yun was born in captivity in China and lived at the San Diego Zoo for more than 20 years. She gave birth to six cubs at the zoo. She and one of her sons were the zoo's last pandas and were returned to China in 2019.

Gao Gao was born in the wild in China and was at the San Diego Zoo for 16 years, from 2003 to 2018, when he was sent back.

Collaboration between San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Chinese research partners has contributed to "critically important and far-reaching discoveries as well as scientific contributions that have played a meaningful role" in China's efforts to bring the giant panda back from the brink of extinction, according to the organization.

These include findings on giant panda reproductive behavior and physiology, nutritional requirements, habitat needs and genetic research, among other areas of focus. The efforts include developing a giant panda milk formula and other neonatal conservation techniques that increased survival rates for nursery-reared cubs from 5% to 95%, as well as the first successful artificial insemination of a giant panda outside of China.

"Pandas in our care and in the care of Chinese colleagues at conservation facilities play an important role as assurance against extinction and loss of genetic diversity in their native habitats, as well as a source population for reintroductions," Owen said.

"Our partnership over the decades has served as a powerful example of how — when we work together — we can achieve what was once thought to be impossible," Owen added. "San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is uniquely positioned to collaborate toward a shared goal of creating a sustainable future for giant pandas."

China first gifted the U.S. with pandas in 1972, when two were sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Part of the goal in loaning pandas to zoos in the U.S. was to help breed cubs and boost the population. The population has increased from fewer than 1,000 at one time to more than 1,800 in the wild and captivity.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List downgraded the giant panda from endangered to vulnerable in 2021.

City News Service contributed to this report.