DC residents thrilled, as pandas enjoy new habitat

The return of giant pandas to Washington DC has stirred much anticipation among local residents while also highlighting the extensive renovations by the National Zoo staff of the bears' habitat.

The 3-year-old pandas — Bao Li and Qing Bao — arrived in the US capital from China late Tuesday morning.

The zoo had gone 11 months without pandas after Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji returned to China in November.

"We're very excited. It gives us so much hope for the future. We love supporting endangered animals. Who doesn't love a panda? Everyone loves pandas!" Gene Hunt, 68, of Washington DC told China Daily.

Hunt was taking pictures with panda decorations in the zoo and said he had been watching the news daily to see when the bears would return.

"They are beautiful. The panda is the main symbol of peace between the two nations. We need more of that. We need more exchanges and more cultural awareness of others. It's a great appreciation of nature and the world we live in," he said.

"Thank you, China," for many of those beautiful adolescents," said Albert Garcia, 64, of Washington, who said he hopes that the pandas continue to serve as ambassadors between China and the US. "We love it. And we promise to take good care (of the pandas)."

After a 19-hour, 8,250-mile transpacific journey on the FedEx "Panda Express" from Chengdu, in Southwest China's Sichuan province, the pair landed at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia around 11:30 am. They were taken in two trucks to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI).

A lively crowd of panda fans in black-and-white accessories, along with international media equipped with long-lens cameras, clustered at the zoo's gate.

Bao Li and Qing Bao exited their crates and began exploring their new indoor enclosures, where keepers had placed ample bamboo. The pair will quarantine for a minimum of 30 days and are set to debut at the zoo on Jan 24.

They are the second pair of pandas to arrive in the US this year.

Yun Chuan and Xin Bao debuted at the San Diego Zoo in August, marking a new round of conservation and research efforts between China and the US. A third pair of pandas is expected in San Francisco.

Bao Li, which means "treasure" and "energetic" in Chinese, is fitting for the curious and extroverted male who was born in Sichuan but has a deep familial connection with the city.

His mother, Bao Bao, was born at the National Zoo on Aug 23, 2013, and his grandparents, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, are beloved in the Washington area, where they served as ambassadors for their species for 23 years.

"He is just a charmer. He is an acrobat. He already went into his enclosure and tried to look up for places to climb," Brandie Smith, the John and Adrienne Mars director of NZCBI, told China Daily, "while the other one is more thoughtful, a little more deliberate, maybe more willful."

Qing Bao means "green" and "treasure" in Chinese.

"It's going to be fun to kind of get to know them," Smith said. "We also have incredible scientists who work here with us, and this really is key to decades of successful cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in China."

China and the United States have been working on panda conservation for decades since former first lady Patricia Nixon welcomed the first giant pandas to Washington in 1972. Both countries helped move the giant panda from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the global list of species at risk of extinction.

James Steeil, supervisory veterinary medical officer of NZCBI, who traveled with the pandas on their trip from China, said: "They are eating normally, they are active. They explored. They'll slowly come out over the next couple of days."

Steeil said that the US and China have been working closely on the pandas' primary food source, bamboo, and researching its availability and connections to climate change.

"We also got the recipe for wowotou," Steeil said of the Chinese word for "steamed cornbread", which originated in China and is a favorite food of pandas. "It's a combination of three flours, egg, oil, a little bit of water, and mineral supplements. We put them together and steam it."

Steeil said that he has learned some Chinese words, including a few in Sichuan dialect, which he said the pandas are used to hearing.

Laurie Thompson, the zoo's assistant curator of giant pandas, who has been to China eight times, including a visit earlier in October to meet the pandas, said, "We will start training — basic things like ‘open your mouth' or ‘show us your paw.'"

The David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat, along with the Bird House and Asia Trail, will reopen when Bao Li and Qing Bao make their public appearance. The habitat has been under renovation since last November.

The zoo upgraded new rock structures with shallow pools for pandas to wade, bathe and play in; there are stands that hold bamboo upright and require the pandas to reach up and pull the stalks down, simulating the foraging techniques needed in the wild.

Climbing structures — made of natural wood beams and woven hammocks — offer additional vertical space but also challenge wild pandas' climbing skills.

"They're splashing around and having a great time, so it sounds like they're using the space just as we had hoped," said Matt Sellers, the zoo's landscape architect.

Stephanie Brinley, deputy director of NZCBI, said: "We want to make sure that they're as healthy as possible. We will start acclimating them. We know that huge groups are going to come to visit, but we want them to get used to people."