The a few giant pandas at Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo in Washington, DC, will be returned to China by December 7, the zoo declared in statements unveiled on equally Monday, August 21, and Sunday, August 27.
The bulletins came in the birthday push releases for panda Xiao Qi Ji’s third birthday on August 21 — and for his father Tian Tian’s 26th birthday on August 27.
In the press releases, the Nationwide Zoo noted that this birthday for the pandas would be their final in the District of Columbia.
“He and the Zoo’s female huge panda, 25-yr-previous Mei Xiang, and their 3-calendar year-old son, Xiao Qi Ji, will depart the Zoo by December,” explained the launch on August 27.
The zoo announced that there will be “Panda Palooza” — a “giant farewell celebearation” to say goodbye to “three of the zoo’s most well known citizens.”
Panda Palooza will be held from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1, claimed the zoo, with extra information coming in early September, it stated.
With the pandas’ pending departure, the Nationwide Zoo will be panda-less for the 1st time in about 50 percent a century.
Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, the zoo’s very first pandas, arrived in April 1972 as a gift from China, explained the Countrywide Zoo.
In February 1972, during President Richard Nixon’s visit to China, very first lady Patricia Nixon advised Chinese Leading Zhou Enlai that she experienced really appreciated the pandas she experienced noticed at the Beijing zoo, explained the Countrywide Archives’ web site.
“I’ll give you some,” explained Enlai — and Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling have been sent in excess of shortly thereafter.
Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling died in the ’90s, stated the Nationwide Archives. They had no surviving offspring.
Their replacements, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, lived at the National Zoo considering the fact that Dec. 6, 2000, claimed the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park’s web site.
The two were being each born at the China Exploration and Conservation Heart for the Huge Panda, found in the province of Sichuan.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are the moms and dads of many cubs — although due to the large panda’s infamous difficulty with all-natural breeding in captivity, all of Tian Tian’s cubs had been conceived by means of synthetic insemination.
Their initial cub, Tai Shan, was born on July 9, 2005.
He was sent to China on Feb. 4, 2010.
