Two giant pandas arrived at Zoo Atlanta on Sunday, but they will spend about a month in quarantine first, and the zoo has not said when visitors can see them.
Ping Ping, a male born March 17, 2020, and Fu Shuang, a female born Oct. 18, 2020, both came from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sept. 27 aboard a Boeing 777 the zoo called a “FedEx Panda Express,” with FedEx donating the transport, according to Zoo Atlanta’s release announcing their arrival.
Ping Ping’s name is part of a name given at birth to him and his twin brother, representing a blessing for a smooth and healthy life. Fu Shuang’s name comes from “Fu Lu,” a reference to her and her mother, meaning “happiness,” according to Zoo Atlanta.
When you can see them
The pandas are not on public view. Zoo Atlanta said they are in quarantine “of around a month” inside a biosecure area of the zoo’s new giant panda complex. The zoo said it will announce the name of their new home, habitat design details and the date guests can see them, but it gave no timeline for that announcement. AP reported no specific opening date has been confirmed.
Atlanta is the third U.S. zoo to receive pandas under a new agreement since mid-2024, after San Diego and the National Zoo. At the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived Oct. 15, 2024, and made their public debut Jan. 24, 2025, according to the National Zoo’s own releases — about three months after they landed. That was another zoo’s timeline, not a forecast for Atlanta.
How U.S. panda numbers got here
The lineup of U.S. zoos with giant pandas has changed several times in less than three years:
- November 2023: Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji left the National Zoo for China, leaving Zoo Atlanta as the only U.S. zoo with giant pandas at the time, the National Zoo and CNN reported.
- June 27, 2024: Yun Chuan and Xin Bao arrived at the San Diego Zoo, UPI reported June 28, 2024, citing the zoo’s announcement.
- October 2024: Atlanta’s Lun Lun and Yang Yang, along with their two youngest offspring, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, left for Chengdu, Zoo Atlanta said. That same month, on Oct. 15, Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived at the National Zoo.
- Sept. 27, 2026: Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrive in Atlanta, making it one of three U.S. zoos with giant pandas, alongside San Diego and the National Zoo, according to Zoo Atlanta and AP. The zoo says it is the only one in the Southeast.
Atlanta’s first 25 years with pandas
Zoo Atlanta’s earlier giant panda program ran from 1999 to 2024. During that span, Lun Lun and Yang Yang had seven offspring between 2006 and 2016, including two sets of twins. All seven are now in Chengdu: five had already relocated there, and the final two left when their parents departed in 2024, according to Zoo Atlanta.
Zoo Atlanta president and CEO Raymond B. King called the arrival “a thrilling day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the City of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and beyond.”
The diplomacy
The pandas arrived under a new International Cooperative Research Agreement on Giant Panda Conservation between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, the zoo said. According to AP, the loan runs 10 years; the zoo’s own release did not state a length. AP reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the pandas’ arrival on Thursday, Sept. 24, during a three-day summit with President Trump. AP called the loan one of the few concrete outcomes of a state visit that produced goodwill but no fixes to long-standing differences between the two countries; the agreement itself had been announced in April, without dates. Xi, according to AP, called the loan program an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.” China has long used pandas in its diplomacy, AP noted, lending them as goodwill gestures and letting loans lapse when tensions rise.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature moved giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable in 2016, and nearly 1,900 remain in the wild, according to Zoo Atlanta.
For now, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang remain out of public view. Zoo Atlanta has not said when that will change.