Off to the Sun: A Sad Day for Panda Fans

Say goodbye to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu

Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu are the stars of the San Diego Zoo, a mother-son duo who spend their days the way I wish I could: eating, climbing things, and taking naps, all in front of their adoring fans. Giant pandas have been a staple at the zoo since 1996, and Xiao Liwu — also known as Mr. Wu — is the sixth cub to be born and raised in San Diego.

He may have the United States listed on his birth certificate, but Xiao Liwu is the property of China. In spring of 2019, the zoo announced it was time for him and Bai Yun to return to their ancestral homeland, leaving San Diego without pandas for the first time in more than two decades.

In 1996, not much was known about panda behavior, and pandas were struggling to breed in zoos. Staffers at the San Diego Zoo and their Chinese counterparts came up with a conservation strategy, and started learning all they could about pregnancy, birth, and maternal care, through Bai Yun.
Bai Yun was a gift to researchers. She gave birth to Hua Mei in 1999, the first surviving giant panda born in the United States.

While there are still only about 2,000 pandas in the world, they have been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.