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The Washington Post

Bei Bei, a popular giant panda cub at Washington’s National Zoo, departed for China today after thousands of fans turned out at the US park to bid their goodbyes over the weekend.
Bei Bei, whose name means “precious treasure”, was born at the zoo in 2015.
Zoo officials had a week of special activities for humans at the zoo – along with frozen fruit cakes for Bei Bei – as keepers prepared to fly the 109kg (240-pound) panda off to China on Tuesday as part of a deal between the two countries.
China owns all giant pandas and leases them to US zoos; they have to go to China when they turn four years old so they can be bred.

Brb. Crying. #ByeByeBeiBei https://t.co/RJZvosqpVC
— Dulles Airport (IAD) (@Dulles_Airport) November 19, 2019

His leaving comes at a time of uncertainty for pandas at the zoo, where they have been a nearly constant – and popular – attraction for the last 47 years.
Mei Xiang, his mother, had a “false pregnancy”, where female pandas can show signs of being pregnant but are not really pregnant, in March. That followed two other false pregnancies in the last few years.
For now, it is not known whether the zoo will get any new giant panda cubs. It is also unclear whether China will want back Mei Xiang and Bei Bei’s father Tian Tian, who were both born in China and have been on a long-term leases to the United States. Their lease expires next year on December 7.

Bei Bei is the third giant panda to have been born at the National Zoo and moved to China. Tai Shan moved in 2010, and Bao Bao moved in 2017.
A week of events marked Bei Bei’s imminent departure. Visitors over the weekend were served dumplings, courtesy of the Chinese Embassy. In turn, they wrote postcards and made friendship bracelets for the panda.
Bei Bei got treats, too, including ice cakes filled with frozen juice, sweet potato and sugar cane.
Over the last week, the zoo had put up messages on its social media accounts that read like a walk down memory lane of Bei Bei’s four years at the facility, using the hashtag #ByeByeBeiBei.




















View this post on Instagram



















It can be difficult to determine if a bear cub is male or female until they are at least a few months old, so our scientists use DNA tests to determine if a cub is male or female. At 6 days old, genetic tests revealed Bei Bei was a boy and Tian Tian’s son! SCBI scientists and veterinarians developed the method to reliably identify the sex of pandas. #PandaStory #ByeByeBeiBei Celebrate Bei Bei with us this weekend and see him get a special cake at 9 a.m. tomorrow, Nov. 17.
A post shared by Smithsonian's National Zoo (@smithsonianzoo) on Nov 16, 2019 at 2:45pm PST



It shared the first ultrasound showing the panda and images of the cub playing in the snow at his enclosure.
The zoo said that pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating about 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day. And although pandas may look fluffy, their fur is “very coarse and dense like wool”, the zoo said on Twitter, adding that fur “acts as a cushion when cubs tumble and fall”.
There were also some reminders of how cute and entertaining Bei Bei was. One video from the panda cam at his exhibit showed Bei Bei doing two of his favourite things: climbing and tumbling.

The zoo also encouraged panda fans to make a mix tape of music that the panda might want to listen to on his 16-hour flight to China.
Over the weekend, zoo officials said they saw an uptick in visitors, with more than 12,700 coming Saturday and Sunday, compared with 5,500 during the same weekend in 2018.
Some visitors this weekend came from Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, New York and New Jersey, according to zoo officials.

On Tuesday morning, Bei Bei was taken from his enclosure at the zoo and put in a crate and driven to Dulles International Airport, where was put on a FedEx plane with keepers for a nonstop flight.
He had been training with his keepers the last few weeks on getting into – and staying in – the crate. A spokeswoman for the zoo said his crate training has “gone very well and easily”.

Here it is, your definitive thread of Bei Bei GIFs.

Tomorrow our @NationalZoo says #ByeByeBeiBei: https://t.co/yItb1fZYWd pic.twitter.com/2dqQGBOAL4
— Smithsonian (@smithsonian) November 18, 2019

Pamela Baker-Masson, a spokeswoman for the zoo, said on Monday that “Bei Bei willingly goes into the crate, enjoys his treats”, and was “comfortable with the doors closed”.
Zoo officials said once they see Bei Bei off, they will focus on an agreement with the Chinese in 2020 regarding pandas.
“Bei Bei is just one of many conservation successes,” Baker-Masson said. “There is still a lot of conservation work to be done and for all the right and important reasons, we want to continue our giant panda programme.”


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Pandas

Bye bye, Bei Bei: Chinese panda in US zoo farewelled with frozen treats, friendship bracelets

Bei Bei snacks on sugarcane at the National Zoo in Washington on November 18, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa08006619 Giant panda Bei Bei walks in an enclosure at Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, USA, 18 November 2019. On 19 November 2019, four-year-old Bei Bei will leave the National Zoo where he was born to live at a base run by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan, China. The National Zoo's agreement with China dictates that panda cubs born at the Zoo must go to China when they reach four years of age. Bei Bei will travel to China on a Boeing 777-Freighter plane dubbed 'The Panda Express'. There are an estimated 1,800 pandas in the wild. EPA-EFE/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Bei Bei, the giant panda, munches bamboo in his yard at the National Zoo on Tuesday before his 16-hour flight to China. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Michael E. Ruane

epa08006614 Giant panda Bei Bei climbs on a tree inside an enclosure at Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, USA, 18 November 2019. On 19 November 2019, four-year-old Bei Bei will leave the National Zoo where he was born to live at a base run by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan, China. The National Zoo's agreement with China dictates that panda cubs born at the Zoo must go to China when they reach four years of age. Bei Bei will travel to China on a Boeing 777-Freighter plane dubbed 'The Panda Express'. There are an estimated 1,800 pandas in the wild. EPA-EFE/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

US National Zoo’s giant panda Bei Bei turns four, soon to depart for China

Giant panda Bei Bei with his frozen birthday cake at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Photo: AFP

Giant panda Bei Bei eats his frozen 4th birthday cake at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, on August 22, 2019. - Bei Bei is set to move to China after turning four years old, according to a US-China breeding agreement between the Smithsonian National Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. (Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP)

Bei Bei bye bye: devoted US keeper waves farewell to giant panda cub before he heads to China

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's last panda cub, with Laurie Thompson, the zoo's assistant curator of giant pandas. Bei Bei is leaving for China. Photo: Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post

Bei Bei plays in his enclosure Monday at the National Zoo in Washington. He turned 4 on Aug. 22. MUST CREDIT: Photo by Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post.

Adela Haserodt, 8, watches Bei Bei during a visit to the National Zoo on Monday. MUST CREDIT: Photo by Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post.

(191111) -- WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2019 (Xinhua) -- U.S.-born male giant panda Bei Bei is seen at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C., the United States, on Nov. 11, 2019. A weeklong farewell party for U.S.-born male giant panda Bei Bei, who is to depart the Smithsonian's National Zoo for China later this month, kicked off here on Monday. Bei Bei's departure, scheduled for Nov. 19, is part of the U.S. national zoo's cooperative breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association that all cubs born here shall move to China after the fourth birthday. Bei Bei turned four on Aug. 22. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

China creates facial recognition app – for pandas

Giant male panda Xiao Liwu eats some bamboo in April before being repatriated to China with his mother Bai Yun, bringing an end to a 23-year-long panda research programme in San Diego. Photo: Reuters

(190131) -- WOLONG, Jan. 31, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2019 shows a giant panda cub at the Shenshuping base of China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Giant pandas born here in 2018 made a group appearance on Thursday to greet the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 5 this year. (Xinhua/Xue Yubin)

Calls to name Berlin zoo’s panda cubs ‘Hong and Kong’ spark German national debate on China

Panda Meng-Meng looks at one of her newborn twin cubs at Berlin Zoo, Germany. Photo: Reuters

Male giant panda Jiao Qing is pictured in his enclosure at the Zoologischer Garten zoo in Berlin on September 2, 2019. - Jiao Qing became a father. As the zoo announced on September 2, 2019, its resident panda Meng Meng had delivered twins on August 31, 2019. On loan from China, Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in June 2017 to great fanfare. While the cubs are born in Berlin, they remain Chinese and must be returned to China within four years after they have been weaned. (Photo by Paul Zinken / dpa / AFP) / Germany OUT

epa07816584 An undated handout picture made available by Zoo Berlin on 04 September 2019 shows a panda cub being bottle-fed in Berlin, Germany. According to Zoo Berlin, mother Meng Meng gave birth to the pandas on 31 August 2019. The two cubs are the first Pandas born in Germany. EPA-EFE/ZOO BERLIN / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 5, 2017 shows China's President Xi Jinping (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel standing in front of the enclosure of Meng Meng, one of two giant pandas arrived at the zoo, during the panda welcoming ceremony at the Zoologischer Garten zoo in Berlin. - Berlin's Zoologischer Garten zoo said on September 2, 2019 its resident panda Meng Meng had delivered twins, as it voiced delight at the first such births in the country. (Photo by AXEL SCHMIDT / POOL / AFP)

Double happiness for Berlin as resident panda gives birth to twins

Chinese giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins at Berlin zoo, the first pandas to be born in Germany. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa07811965 A frame grab taken from an undated handout video made available by Zoo Berlin on 02 September 2019 shows female giant panda Meng Meng taking care of one of her two newborn panda twins at the zoo in Berlin, Germany. According to the zoo, the two baby pandas were born by mother Meng Meng on 31 August 2019. The cubs are the first Pandas to be born in Germany. EPA-EFE/ZOO BERLIN HANDOUT -- BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE -- HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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The panda, who was born four years ago in Washington’s National Zoo, is being flown to China as part of a deal between the two countries
Before he left, fans wrote postcards and made friendship bracelets for Bei Bei, the third panda to have been born at the zoo



Before he left, fans wrote postcards and made friendship bracelets for Bei Bei, the third panda to have been born at the zoo.


Conservation

United States

Diplomacy

US-China relations