Giant Pandas Depart National Zoo in Custom FedEx Panda Truck

Three giant pandas that have resided at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Washington, DC, started their journey back home to China on Wednesday, November 8, the zoo said.

According to the zoo, giant pandas Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Xiao Qi Ji departed the zoo at 9:31 am on Wednesday, headed for Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. From there, the trio would board “a dedicated and custom-decaled FedEx Panda Express Boeing 777F aircraft,” which would carry them over a 19 hour flight to Chengdu, China.

Mark Strattner filmed this footage in Washington as the pandas headed for the airport on Wednesday morning.

Several staff members would fly with the pandas and were stocked with approximately 220 pounds of bamboo, eight pounds of leaf-eater biscuits, five pounds of low-starch biscuits, six pounds of apples, five pounds of carrots, six pounds of sweet potatoes, three pounds of sugar cane, one pound of pears, and one pound of cooked squash, the zoo listed in a press release.

Mei Xiang, age 25, and Tian Tian, 26, arrived in Washington in 2000, making them the second pair of giant pandas to live at the zoo, the NZCBI said. The pair’s first three surviving cubs, Tai Shan, Bao Bao, and Bei Bei, are “thriving in China,” with Tai Shan and Bao Bao welcoming cubs of their own, according to the zoo’s press release.

NZCBI said Mei Xiang became the oldest giant panda to give birth in the United States and the second oldest documented in the world back in 2020 when she gave birth at 22 years old to Xiao Qi Ji, a name that translates to “little miracle.” Credit: Mark Strattner via Storyful

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