Giant Pandas Return to National Zoo for Public Debut (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: the giant pandas meet the public at the National Zoo. Tonight, the remarkable sight, the pandas from China making their long-awaited public debut at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Three-year-old Bao Li now in his new home. Ching Bao, also three years old, eating an apple today, a carrot too. And of course, both munching on lots of bamboo, 100 pounds of it every day. The bamboo grown and harvested about 70 miles away. Local kindergartners welcoming the pandas early this morning. Ching Bao climbing a tree, the children calling out Bao Li's name. Thousands of visitors expected this weekend with many more watching on the zoo's panda cam, 40 cameras giving people around the world an up-close look. It's all part of a revival of the so-called panda diplomacy between China and America after a pause in 2023. Pandas were sent home to China, but tonight they're back. The pandas arriving from China last October, touching down at Dulles International Airport in a Boeing aircraft they call the FedEx Panda Express, the panda picture right on the side. The two in these custom crates, a police escort right to the zoo in Washington, crowds lining the streets. In quarantine and closely monitored by their care teams, but now they are ready. The zoo calling this a celebration and a new chapter of their more than five-decade-long panda conservation

Speaker 2: program. They're adorable, but they're also rare. It's a success story. We are winning the conservation war with giant pandas, like there are more of them in the wild because of this. And so people come here and they're part of our success. And we're all cheering on that success.

Speaker 1: Great to see the pandas back.