ATLANTA — Quentin Kelso and daughter Ava loved their Friday visit to Zoo Atlanta so much, they’re already planning a return trip.
Also planning a return trip to the zoo are giant pandas. A previous contract expired back in 2024, sending a family of pandas back to China.
But now, two new pandas are coming soon.
“I mean, it’s exciting to get them back. That’s one of the things I was missing from the zoo was the pandas,” Kelso said.
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Giant Pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are moving in soon.
“No animal generates the same level of enthusiasm as a panda bear,” Zoo Atlanta CEO Raymond King said.
King says the big announcement was 25 years in the making. That’s how long Lun Lun and Yang Yang stayed here, from 1999 until their return trip to China in 2024. During their time at Zoo Atlanta, they had seven cubs.
King says relationships make the world go round.
“There are only three zoos in the country that have the honor of displaying these pandas for the public, so it’s a win for the Zoo Atlanta, but also a win for the city and the state,” King said.
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State and city leaders are celebrating that win.
“Everybody loves the pandas, and grew up anticipating them. We’re gonna get two,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
Ping Ping is a 6-year-old male and female Fu Shuang will turn 6 later this year.
“Ava, why are you sad? Is she sad to be going home?” Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen asked at the zoo’s exit.
“Right, she didn’t want to leave! She didn’t want to leave,” her father said.
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