More pandas are coming to the US. This time to San Francisco, the first time since 1985

Just a few weeks after the San Diego Zoo announced that they were bringing back pandas to the United States, the San Francisco Zoo said that they're bringing the cuddly bears to northern California.

"We’re thrilled for the return of the Giant Panda to San Francisco Zoo & Gardens after all these years," Tanya Peterson, the zoo's executive director said in a statement. "The Giant Panda symbolizes hope for conservation collaboration and bridges divides between cultural differences." We thank Mayor London Breed, city leaders, and colleagues in China for returning these amazing ambassadors to beautiful San Francisco!"

The pandas are being brought to San Francisco as part of China's Panda Diplomacy program, Mayor London Breed's office said in a news release.

Breed said that the city was thrilled to be welcoming the giant pandas that efforts to bring them to the zoo had been ongoing for nearly a year, prior to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in San Francisco last November, during which U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Chinese President Xi Jinping met.

"These Giant Pandas will honor our deep cultural connections and our Chinese and API (Asian/Pacific Islander) heritage," the mayor said. "It’s an honor that our city has been chosen for the first time to be a long-term home for Giant Pandas. They will bring residents and visitors from all over who come to visit them at the SF Zoo."

Pandas last came to San Francisco in 1985

The pandas were last at the San Francisco zoo on temporary visits in 1984 and 1985, according to the mayor's office and the zoo.

"In 1984, two pandas named Yun-Yun and Ying-Xin visited the zoo for three months as part of the 1984 Summer Olympics tour, and drew more than 260,000 visitors to the San Francisco Zoo, roughly four times the average attendance during the time," the mayor's office said.

The pandas visited the zoo again for three months in 1985.

When are the giant pandas coming to the San Francisco zoo?

The timing of the arrival of the pandas has not been announced.

The mayor's office said that a date will be set once the panda enclosure at the zoo is complete. Preliminary work on that has already begun and engineers from the Beijing Zoo travelled to San Francisco to meet with officials of the zoo and assist in the preparations.

Why did pandas get removed from zoos in the US?

Zoos across the country returned their pandas last year because of the rocky relationship between the U.S. and China.

Three beloved pandas, Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Xiao QI Ji, were sent back to China from the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in November after attempts to renew a three-year agreement with China Wildlife Conservation Association failed.

The decision to return them came after Jinping, who called pandas "envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples," met with Biden in November.

"I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas and went to the zoo to see them off," Xi said.

Mayor Breed sent a letter to Jinping in Feburary along with over 70 local Chinese and API community and merchant leaders and requested for San Francisco to receive the pandas.

China's history of loaning out pandas

China gifted the first panda to the U.S. in 1972 after President Richard Nixon formalized normal relations with China. The practice was dubbed "panda diplomacy."

Over the years, China has loaned pandas to other foreign zoos in hopes that it will build ties with those countries.

Contributing: Julia Gomez, USA TODAY

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.