Atlanta’s new giant pandas will make their public debut after a 2-year absence

ATLANTA (AP) — Panda lovers are expected to line up Friday at Zoo Atlanta to see a new pair of giant pandas make their public debut.

Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, arrived from China in September as part of a 10-year loan agreement. After getting acclimated to their habitat, the 6-year-old pandas will greet visitors in the newly renovated Arthur M. Blank Panda Grove.

Ping Ping has distinctive dark circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang has a forehead that protrudes a bit, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Both were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

The zoo’s panda enclosure had been empty for the past two years, after four other pandas returned from Zoo Atlanta to China, ending a 25-year partnership amid strained relations between the two countries.

“The return of giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta is an exciting moment for our city as we once again become home to one of the world’s most beloved animals,” Arthur Blank said in a statement. Blank co-founded The Home Depot and is one of the city’s biggest philanthropists.

China has long used the pandas as part of its diplomacy globally, deploying the bears in loan programs as expressions of goodwill and letting loan agreements lapse when tensions arise.

Zoo Atlanta is one of three U.S. zoos that now house the popular bamboo munchers.

The National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China in 2023 before accepting new arrivals Bao Li and Qing Bao in October 2024. The San Diego Zoo debuted two pandas in August 2024.

A decade ago, giant pandas were reclassified from endangered to vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, reflecting pandas’ growing numbers in the wild in China.