For all panda lovers in the US, there is sad news. The  National Zoo, in Washington DC, which has been the home to three giant pandas for 50 years, will soon send them back to China. 

The three pandas are set to return in December this year following the end of a three-year-long agreement with China’s wildlife agency, reported Bloomberg. 

With the ones in Washington DC gone, only four giant pandas will remain in the Atalanta Zoo which is expected to shift back by next year, unless both countries strike a new deal among themselves, the report added.

Chee Meng Tan, who is an associate professor at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia and studies panda diplomacy, told the Washington Post, “This is perhaps Beijing’s way of signalling to the West that they may not be very happy with how things are going.”

He added, “This may be one way of telling people that you’re not treating us very well, so maybe we’ll pull out our pandas.” 

Before this, the pandas from San Diego and Memphis had left in 2019 and April 2023, respectively, the report added.

The first instance of China’s Panda Diplomacy can be dated back to 1941 but it wasn’t until President Nixon visited China in 1972 that the US were rewarded with any. After his visit, the US were gifted two pandas which were kept at the National Zoo in Washington DC, the report added. 

Over the years, beyond political motives, the pandas – named Mei Xiang and Tian Tian – have also served the purpose of entertainment. Recently, their 3-year-old male cub, Xiao Qi Ji had also become a centre of attraction for the crowd of the zoo.

Some experts have also suggested that the decision to send back the pandas might not be solely political reasons. They have risen to the point that pandas are no longer under the classification of ‘Endangered Species’.

So, they feel, China is trying to establish their network of national parks and sanctuary. This may have added to the fact that they do not need to send the pandas abroad anymore to conserve and breed.