SAN DIEGO– It will be months before the San Diego Zoo gets new pandas, the first such bears China has sent to the United States in decades.
For now, the only American zoo left is in Atlanta. But there are many places around the world where you can watch the cuddly black and white bundles of fur as they nibble on bamboo, climb trees and lounge on their backs.
The bear is native to China, where it is considered a national treasure.
Here are some places where pandas can be seen, possibly in the wild in China.
Zoo Atlanta has four pandas, including the first twins born in the United States in more than a quarter century. Giant pandas typically care for only one cub when twins are born in the wild, which usually results in only one twin surviving.
Ya Lun and Xi Lun and their parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, could return to China by the end of 2024 unless the loan agreement is extended.
The only other place in America where people can see pandas is in Mexico City, at the Chapultepec Zoo.
Xin Xin is the last panda in Latin America and is not loaned by China. That’s because she is the only remaining bear descended from the giant pandas that China donated to foreign countries in the 1970s and 1980s. The second-generation Mexican-born panda traces its lineage back to Pe Pe and Ying Ying, who arrived at the zoo in 1975.
One of the last countries China sent pandas to was Qatar in 2022, ahead of the Middle Eastern country that hosted the World Cup.
The pair are staying in an indoor compound in the desert country, designed to mimic conditions in the dense forests of China’s mountainous Sichuan province. Every week, eight hundred kilos of fresh bamboo are flown in to feed them.
Jing Jing, the male, was given the Arabic name Suhail. Si Hai, the female, was given the Arabic name Thuraya.
In 2019, the Moscow Zoo welcomed its first pair of pandas, a male named Ru Yi and a female named Ding Ding. Chinese President Xi Jinping leased the pandas during an official visit that was intended to show a “sign of respect and trust.”
The Berlin Zoo is home to Jiao Qing and Meng Meng, who arrived in Berlin in 2017. They gave birth to twins, the first panda cubs born in Germany. Those cubs have now returned to China.
Giant pandas are restricted to six mountainous areas in southwestern China, in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi. Last year, a total of 34 pandas were born at two bases in Sichuan, including at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a popular tourist destination in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.
It is estimated that more than 1,800 individuals live in the wild, where they are mainly threatened by habitat loss. About 420 others live in captivity in zoos and reserves, the majority in China.