Six-year-old male Ping Ping and five-year-old female Fu Shuang arrived at Zoo Atlanta on Sunday. They are meant to breed as part of conservation efforts, but will undergo about a month of routine quarantine before visitors can see them.
China's state news agency Xinhua reports that the pandas are on a 10-year loan. The bears and any offspring belong to China and are expected eventually to return there. Their arrival is part of Beijing's long-running use of pandas as diplomatic envoys, though whether they will ease US-China tensions is unclear.
About 1,900 wild pandas live in six mountain ranges above the Sichuan basin, and the species is classified as vulnerable. Captive breeding is difficult: females are in heat for only one to three days each year. Zoo keepers selected Ping Ping and Fu Shuang based on age, health, genetics and personality, and officials hope they will mate naturally.
