Get ready to adore Bao Li and Qing Bao, now on track to become America’s latest giant panda sweethearts.
Six months after China reclaimed a pair of adult pandas and their 200-pound cub from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, U.S. officials Wednesday announced two replacement pandas will be arriving sometime later this year. The return of the lovable roly-poly creatures to the National Zoo marks a success in international wildlife negotiations that the Biden administration touted with some star-powered pizzazz.
“We can’t wait to celebrate this historic moment in our nation’s capital,” first lady Jill Biden said in a video announcement. “Join us, it’s official. The pandas are coming back to D.C.!”
The administration had some fun with the announcement, which was folded into a lightly comedic 144-second video sketch in which the first lady; Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III; and Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, appeared at first to be planning a reception for important but not-yet-identified White House guests.
