Giant pandas are returning to D.C.'s National Zoo

Release time：2024-06-03 17:58:00 Source：Culture Craft news portal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two giant pandas are coming to Washington’s National Zoo from China by the end of the year.

The zoo made the announcement Wednesday, about half a year after it sent its three pandas back to China. The number of pandas in American zoos has steadily dwindled as loan agreements lapsed during diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China that remain high over economic relations, technology, trade, Taiwan and even a spy balloon.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said the pair of pandas are Bao Li (pronounced BOW'-lee) and Qing Bao (ching-BOW’). Giant pandas are icons in Washington, D.C., and beloved around the nation and the world. For more than five decades, the institute has created and maintained one of the world’s foremost giant panda conservation programs, helping move the panda from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction.

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