Zoo Atlanta announces pandas to leave in next month

Lun Lun and twin cubs Ya Lun and Xi Lun eating bamboo. (Courtesy of Zoo Atlanta)

Zoo Atlanta says that its four giant pandas are getting ready to move back to China in mid-October.

The zoo didn’t specify a date for their departure, but said that visitors who want to say a last goodbye to the pandas should visit in the next three weeks.

The pandas are part of an agreement with China that began in the mid-1990s. That was when Zoo Atlanta received Lun Lun and Yang Yang, two pandas who have since birthed seven panda cubs in Atlanta, the most recent in 2016. Five of their offspring went to China, and the remaining two at Zoo Atlanta will travel to China with their parents.