Giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xioa Qi Ji are leaving the Smithsonian's Zoo in D.C. and will be headed to China aboard a FedEx plane Wednesday.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo bids a bittersweet farewell to its treasured giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xioa Qi Ji Wednesday. Zoo officials announced they will be leaving D.C. and heading to China aboard a FedEx Panda Express plane.
The iconic trio has drawn crowds to the zoo for decades and allowed zoo officials to learn more about saving the species.for the giant pandas in late September, giving animal lovers in the area a chance to say goodbye.Officials with the Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said each of the giant pandas will be moved in transport crates Wednesday morning to FedEx trucks that will take them to the Dulles International Airport for their departing flight at 1 p.m.
Zoo keepers who have been caring for them for years said the giant panda population is growing and it’s partly because of the work here in the nation's capital. “They are actually increasing in the wild. China has committed to their conservation and saving space for them and not only in saving giant pandas, we have saved lots of other species that live in that habitat," said Michael Brown-Palsgrove, Curator of giant pandas at Smithsonian National Zoo.“I am really sad but that’s because I know them as individuals but when I think about what we are doing for the entire species, it makes the hurt a little less,” said Brown-Palsgrove.
FedEx has shipped 15 pandas on 10 flights over the years. Zoo officials said the pandas will travel with 300 pounds of bamboo along with one veterinarian and two keepers.
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