@amivitale1
Ami VitaleHappy National Panda Day! It’s hard to imagine, but giant pandas were once as mythical and elusive as Bigfoot. Though they’ve existed for millions of years, the Western world only learned of them relatively recently. The first live panda was captured in 1936, sparking a “pandamania” that resulted in 14 pandas being trafficked from China before the country put a stop to foreigners taking them. Decades later, during President Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 visit, China gifted Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to the United States. The pair received much fanfare, with over 20,000 people joining the First Lady to welcome them to the zoo. Since the 1980s, China has not given pandas as gifts to foreign nations, but rather loans them to zoos. Last year, new giant pandas arrived in the United States, finding homes at the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where they will be part of cooperative research projects with China to better understand and protect the species. Once highly endangered due to habitat loss, pandas have made a remarkable comeback—downgraded to a ‘Vulnerable’ status in 2016 thanks to efforts to restore and expand bamboo forests. The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, it can help save our planet’s vanishing biodiversity.
On the profile · Mar 16, 2025