DC's Giant Pandas Leaving Smithsonian Zoo In November

WASHINGTON, DC — After more than 50 years, the Smithsonian's National Zoo will be without giant pandas when Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their son, Xiao Qi Ji, return to China — and panda fans have only a handful of days left to say goodbye.

In a statement to Patch, staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said the trio will leave the zoo by mid-November, about three weeks before the facility's current lease agreement with China expires.

"I almost can't let myself think about how I will feel when these animals are gone," zoo director Brandie Smith told the Washington Post. "It's the end of an era for us."

She continued, "I think about it almost like them going to college. You know it's going to happen. It's about to happen. You prepare for it for so long. But on the day that it actually does happen, you're just, like, a bawling mess."

Why are the pandas leaving? Let's start in 1972 when the first giant pandas came to the United States after Chinese officials gifted two to former first lady Patricia Nixon and the American people as a gesture of goodwill.

Nixon selected the National Zoo as the panda's home and welcomed Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing on April 16 that year.

Over the last 50 years, China continued to own and lease all giant pandas in U.S. zoos. In 2000, the National Zoo entered a research and breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) when giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived at the zoo. According to zoo officials, the facility and the CWCA signed a 10-year agreement to lease the pandas, which the entities renewed three times since 2010.

The current contract allows any cubs born at the National Zoo to stay until age four before they are sent back to China to become a part of the country's breeding program, zoo officials said.

But now, China wants its pandas back, according to a separate Washington Post report.

Great Britain will lose its last two pandas in December, the Post reported. Australia will return their pandas next year if an existing agreement is not extended. And once D.C.'s pandas leave, only four will remain in Atlanta, all of which will go next year if a new deal isn't reached.

"This is perhaps Beijing's way of signaling to the West that they may not be very happy with how things are going," Chee Meng Tan, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia, told the Post.

When the trio leaves the National Zoo, it will be in style on the "FedEx Panda Express," a custom-decaled 777F aircraft, part of the company's FedEx Cares "Delivering for Good" initiative. They will travel in specialized crates and be accompanied by two panda keepers and a veterinarian.

Meanwhile, National Zoo staff seem to be savoring the time they have left with the giant pandas.

"I'm sad," Bryan Amaral, the zoo's senior curator, told the Post. "I'm more sad for the folks that have been taking care of these guys for so many years. … I'm sad for the panda fans around D.C. and around the world."

He added, "I'm really glad that we have had the time with these pandas that we've had."