Pandas leave U.S. for China via FedEx

Mei Lan boards the FedEx "Panda Express"

As journalists, local dignitaries and a throng of FedEx employees saw giant panda Mei Lan get hoisted in her cage onto the FedEx plane bound for a breeding center in China, I wondered how her parents were doing back at Zoo Atlanta. Would they miss their 3-year-old daughter, or notice she was gone?

Dr. Rebecca Snyder, the zoo’s Curator of Carnivores, informed me that panda parents do not suffer empty-nest syndrome. Once their cubs are weaned, at about 18 months, the bears go their separate ways. At the zoo, which replicates the conditions of the wild, Mei Lan has been living independently for almost two years. Her parents were not expected to react when she didn’t show up for breakfast.

“Her mom moved on a long time ago,” Snyder said.

It was tougher for the humans to say goodbye, but the mood at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was mainly of excitement and awe at the logistics to send a giant panda back to China. Mei Lan received the fanfare of a president, starting with the police motorcade that escorted her 1,300 pound steel crate and an even larger trailer full of food to a plane decorated with panda decals applied by FedEx employees in Memphis. At around 7 a.m., a hydraulic lift hoisted the trailer onto the 777 freighter, the newest member of the FedEx fleet and the world’s largest twin-engine cargo plane. The plane would soon leave for Washington Dulles International Airport to pick up her cousin and fellow traveler, Tai Shan, for the 14-and-a-half hour flight to China.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said the city should not be sad, but proud of its role in protecting the endangered panda species. As a result of diminished habitat, there are only about 1,600 giant pandas in the wild, all of whom live in China, “and we have a responsibility to protect them,” Reed said.