Fifty years after large pandas arrived in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Nationwide Zoo has none in its enclosures, with three of the animals departing on a 19-hour flight to China.
“Goodbye, and bon voyage,” was the message from a Chinese language diplomat given to the three pandas, who had been dwelling within the nation’s capital on mortgage from China, throughout their departure Wednesday.
Mei Xiang, the feminine, was seen in a crate supplied by transport associate FedEx leaving the zoo. She was later joined by Tian Tian and their 3-year-old son, Xiao Qi Ji, in their very own crates.
“The three members of the family are all in good well being and prepared for the flight,” the diplomat mentioned. “Welcome again!”
Brandie Smith, the John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, known as the day certainly one of many historic moments.
GIANT PANDAS TO LEAVE THE NATIONAL ZOO IN D.C. FOR CHINA EARLIER THAN EXPECTED
“There are billions of people that have admired, celebrated, beloved our large pandas and have participated of their conservation,” Smith mentioned, including it has been a “laborious morning” emotionally.
The zoo’s trade settlement with the Chinese language authorities, initially brokered by President Richard Nixon in 1972, expires Dec. 7. Ongoing negotiations to increase the settlement haven’t produced outcomes, amid hypothesis from China-watchers that Beijing is regularly pulling its pandas from Western nations attributable to deteriorating diplomatic relations with the U.S. and different nations.
GIANT PANDAS TO LEAVE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO IN WASHINGTON, DC, IN DECEMBER
Zoo employees use a forklift to hold out bamboo for the pandas to snack on through the flight down the Asia path on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo. (FOX 5 DC)
The departure from the Nationwide Zoo occurred about three weeks sooner than deliberate. The zoo didn’t disclose why. An enormous “Panda Palooza farewell celebearation” happened from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1 to say farewell to “three of the zoo’s hottest residents.”
The trio acquired a police escort to Dulles Worldwide Airport in Virginia, the place they departed for China on a FedEx aircraft often known as the Panda Specific.
The FedEx Panda Specific plane is seen in 2012 in Paris. (Franck Prevel/Getty Photos)
Big panda Xiao Qi Ji is seen in his enclosure on the Smithsonian Nationwide Zoological Park on Oct. 22, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos)
Big panda Xiao Qi Ji hangs the wrong way up from a tree in its enclosure on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 7, 2023, on the panda’s closing day of viewing earlier than returning to China. (Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
The bears have been a wildly in style attraction and an unofficial image of the nation’s capital for many years. Each birthday and anniversary was an event for public celebration and the long-shot beginning of Xiao Qi Ji within the midst of the pandemic in August 2020 drove tens of millions of viewers to the zoo’s panda-cam.
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Zoo officers say they continue to be hopeful they’ll come to a brand new settlement with the Chinese language authorities. The San Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the final bear on the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went dwelling earlier this yr. The departure of the Nationwide Zoo’s bears implies that the one large pandas left in America are on the Atlanta Zoo – and that mortgage settlement expires late subsequent yr.
Fox Information’ Christine Rousselle and The Related Press contributed to this report.
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