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For the first time in five years, Pandas are back on the West Coast.
San Diego Zoo officials this week celebrated the opening of “Panda Ridge” and the arrival of a pair of Giant Pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, whose grandparents, and Yun Chuan’s mother, were originally from the San Diego Zoo.
Dignitaries from all over celebrated at an opening ceremony Thursday, including China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, California Governor Gavin Newsom, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and even Orange County Supervisor’s Chairman Don Wagner, who brought his granddaughter down to view the Pandas.
Zoo officials say these kinds of conservation efforts are crucial to supporting Pandas. As of last year, the Giant Pandas have been marked down from endangered to vulnerable by The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN).
Feng acknowledged San Diego and California officials as leaders in these kinds of conservation partnerships with China.
Gov. Newsom said the nature of Pandas can help people better understand each other.
“It’s about all of us,” Newsom said, “celebrating our common humanity,” in the “spirit of an open fist not a closed fist.”
The pair of Giant Pandas arrived in late June and have since been acclimating to their new enclosure that is, according to San Diego Zoo officials, four times larger than the zoo’s previous Panda exhibit.
Giant Pandas first appeared at the San Diego Zoo in 1996, eventually leading to the birth of Hua Mei, the first Panda cub to survive captivity in the United States.
Panda Bears are a very unique species as they are one of the only bears centered on a highly herbivorous diet rather than a more carnivorous diet.
“The Panda is so unique, like a Koala, specializing in one food item, ” said Marco Wendt, a wildlife expert at the San Diego Zoo, noting “for Koalas it would be Eucalyptus and for Pandas it is Bamboo.”
Concerns have been raised that captivity may be detrimental to the health of these animals.
When asked about those concerns, Wendt acknowledged them but added, “we would love to have wildlife and animals back in their natural habitats but it’s sad to say that there’s a lot of issues going on in the world, habitat degradation and hunting and poaching.”
The San Diego Zoo has been home to 9 Pandas since the programs began between 1996 and 2019 and it is one of their most popular exhibits.
China has been sending Pandas to the United States since 1941 with the exchanges increasing significantly after President Nixon’s opening to China in 1972. But in recent years, with U.S.-China relations straining, China refused to renew the lease for Pandas all across the United States, forcing their return to China.
However this year, China renewed what has been termed as Panda diplomacy and the Giant Pandas returned.
Two more Pandas will be coming to the National Zoo later this year.
To experience the Pandas yourself, the zoo website provides three ways. You can view them for free by asking for a complementary timed ticket to the exhibit, or show up at the standby line, which runs from 9:30 a.m until the habitat closes, and an early morning 60-minute paid walk through the exhibit.
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