Pandas are coming back to the Atlanta zoo

Two new cuddly, black-and-white teddy bears will soon be en route their new home in Atlanta, the zoo said Thursday.

Zoo Atlanta’s beloved pandas departed in 2024 after a 25-year conservation partnership came to an end. Now, visitors to the zoo will once again enjoy seeing new giant pandas.

The zoo is welcoming male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang as part of a new International Cooperative Research Agreement on Giant Panda Conservation with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

In 2024, Atlantans said goodbye to pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang who had lived at the zoo since they arrived as 2-year-old cubs in 1999. They and their two offspring went back to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding after a big farewell celebration dubbed “Panda-Palooza,” the AJC reported at the time.

Zoo leadership previously told the AJC that they were hopeful Atlanta had chances to again become panda hosts in the future.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our Members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” Raymond B. King, the zoo’s president and CEO, said in a news release.

The pandas were a major draw for the zoo, the AJC previously reported. Their 2024 departure marked a major juncture: the first time in a quarter century the zoo operated without its beloved black and white pandas, which were reliable tourist magnets.