Excitement builds as giant pandas prepare to make their debut at Zoo Atlanta
Excitement is building for the two giant pandas who are making their home at Zoo Atlanta after a trip from China.
Soon, visitors to the zoo will be able to see 6-year-old Ping Ping and 5-year-old Fu Shuang.
The duo arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sunday morning via a special "'FedEx Panda Express' Boeing 777 aircraft," the zoo announced over the weekend.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are on a 10-year loan to the zoo as part of a conservation agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. With their arrival to Georgia, Zoo Atlanta is now one of only three zoos in the U.S. to house giant pandas, the other two being The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the San Diego Zoo.
"We've missed the bears for the past two years and have been anxiously awaiting their return," said Raymond B. King, Zoo Atlanta's president and CEO.
King told CBS News Atlanta the zoo was excited to see the community's reaction to the zoo's newest residents.
"Pandas have a unique ability to get people to pause for a moment and enjoy that sense of wonder and joy. It's a reminder that those emotions and a desire to preserve the planet are really universal," he said.
Word around the pandas' arrival traveled fast. Visitors from places like Charlotte and Canada stopped by Zoo Atlanta on Monday. Unfortunately, visitors won't be able to see the pandas just yet.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will be quarantined for about a month in a biosecure area of the zoo's new giant panda complex. During that time, the pandas will have to adjust to their environment and undergo specialized training with their new handlers, learning some English phrases and commands along the way.
The pair are expected to chow down on a lot of bamboo in the decade they live in Atlanta, but zoo officials say that's not going to be a problem. The zoo doesn't pay for bamboo, instead it has several trucks harvest the plant from properties around the metro area on a regular basis.
Zoo Atlanta has been part of a giant panda agreement with China for more than 25 years. Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October 2024. By the time they left, sales of panda merch grew to a million dollars, zoo officials said. Since their departure, King said attendance at the zoo has been down.
China has long used its giant panda loan program as a tool of Beijing's soft power diplomacy worldwide.
"On a national level it's obviously a great sign of cooperation between two countries that obviously compete at times, but when it comes to wildlife protection there is no competition. It's very much a collaboration," King said.
The pandas' premiere date hasn't been announced yet.
