Giant pandas have returned to Zoo Atlanta after a two-year absence, with new arrivals Ping Ping and Fu Shuang making their public debut on Friday 6 November.

The pair, both six years old, appeared before visitors in the newly renovated Arthur M. Blank Panda Grove, a habitat rebuilt with a $6 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. The zoo opened its gates later than usual on Friday to allow a morning ceremony at the grove before general admission began at around 10.30am.

Ping Ping, the male, was born on 17 March 2020, and Fu Shuang, the female, on 18 October 2020. Both were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China and arrived in Atlanta on 27 September aboard a Boeing 777 provided by FedEx. They spent the weeks since then in quarantine and getting used to their new home.

The pandas are in Atlanta under a 10-year International Cooperative Research Agreement on Giant Panda Conservation between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Their arrival restores Zoo Atlanta as one of only three zoos in the United States housing giant pandas, alongside the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo, and the only one in the south-east.

Zoo Atlanta's panda enclosure had stood empty for two years after four pandas returned to China in 2024, ending a 25-year partnership. That programme, which began in 1999, produced seven cubs, all of which have since returned to Chengdu.

Arthur Blank, whose support for the zoo's panda programme dates back to 1999, said the return was an exciting moment for the city. China has long used panda loans as part of its diplomacy, and the new arrivals come amid strained relations between the two countries.

[Source: phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-11-atlanta-giant-pandas-debut-year.html) | [Source: atlantafi.com](https://atlantafi.com/giant-pandas-ping-ping-fu-shuang-to-debut-at-zoo-atlanta/)