2 Pandas From China Arrive at Zoo in Atlanta

Atlanta’s zoo had been waiting 12 years for the delivery that UPS made Friday: two giant pandas from China.

The furry black-and-white animals were unloaded from two brown United Parcel Service trucks after flying halfway around the world on a special UPS plane.

Lun-Lun and Yang-Yang, both 2, will be quarantined until Nov. 20, when they go on display at Zoo Atlanta in a new $7-million habitat. They will stay in Atlanta for 10 years as part of a project to learn why the endangered animals show little interest in mating while in captivity.

With their arrival, the U.S. panda population is now six. The National Zoo in Washington has one, and the San Diego Zoo has three, including a cub born Aug. 21.

When the pandas arrived at the zoo, they were in no hurry to move into their new home. It took about an hour to coax them out of the bamboo-lined crates in which they had lived for nearly three days while in transit.

“This is a completely new place for them,” said Rebecca Snyder, a Zoo Atlanta researcher who has spent the last two years studying Lun-Lun and Yang-Yang in China. “There are new smells and new surroundings, and they are used to being taken care of. But they’ll adjust to everything.”

Zoo Atlanta is paying the Chinese government $10 million for the loan of the pandas, and if they do reproduce, any offspring would belong to China. Zoo Atlanta had been trying to get pandas for 12 years.

The pandas began their journey at the Panda Breeding Center in China’s Sichuan province. After a long flight to Beijing, they had to wait in their crates 12 hours before beginning the 17-hour flight to Atlanta on the “Panda Express,” a Boeing 767 owned by UPS.

Since the pandas like a cool climate, the UPS plane and delivery trucks were chilled to about 55 degrees.

Zoo Atlanta veterinarian Rita McManamon said the animals seemed to enjoy the trip.

Pandas are native only to China. Of the roughly 1,000 remaining pandas in the world, more than 120 live in captivity and 80% live in Sichuan.

Even though they weren’t yet on display, Yang-Yang and Lun-Lun did make a stir among zoo visitors Friday.

“We kind of planned our trip around this,” said Amy Zawosky, 12, who made the hour’s drive from Macon with her seventh-grade class. “We tried to get the security guard to let us in to get a peek, but he wouldn’t. I definitely want to come back on a weekend to see them.”