Rush is on to see last giant pandas in U.S.
Animals at Zoo Atlanta will return to China some time this year
Mary Barker was determined to see the last remaining giant pandas in the United States, so she kept her foot on the gas. In December, she plowed through torrential rain while driving 18 hours each way from her home in northern Pennsylvania. In between she spent six hours at Zoo Atlanta, which is supposed to return the animals to China at an undetermined time this year.
“It was definitely worth it,” Barker said. “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
While her adventure may have been a bit extreme, she is far from alone in her desire to visit the pandas while Americans can do so without a passport.
Travel agent Lainey Melnick, 61, flew from Austin, Texas, to Atlanta for the Dec. 8 weekend “just to see the pandas.” She had previously seen them in Washington, D.C., and in Japan, but knew Atlanta would be her last opportunity for a while.
“I would even fly to China to see them, but it’s a lot easier to fly to Atlanta,” Melnick said.
Attendance at Zoo Atlanta has been higher than normal the past few months, and that’s “likely” due to the pandas, but other factors, like weather, may also be playing a role, said zoo spokeswoman Rachel Davis.
Anecdotally, there’s no doubt that panda FOMO is a motivator. On Facebook groups like the Ultimate Panda Fan, people have been sharing their travel plans and encouraging one another to make the trip. My trip came at my daughter’s suggestion. We made two outings to the zoo during a long weekend to see the pandas. We met Barker, 59, and her daughter, Helena, 30, on Dec. 11 after a zoo employee commented on how many out-of-towners had been visiting.
I announced that we’d flown in from Colorado. Another family had driven six hours from Kentucky. Barker outdid us all, sharing the story of her drive. She had been watching the Today show when she heard the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington was returning its three giant pandas, and that the four in Atlanta were also due to leave.
“With so many things going on with China and the United States, I figured if they pulled the pandas out I would never get to see them,” she said.
She drove alone from her home to Virginia Beach to pick up her daughter, then they continued to Atlanta. Nearly half the drive was in the pouring rain. “A storm was coming up the East Coast,” she recalled. “We didn’t care. It wasn’t keeping us away from the pandas.”
In all, they spent about two hours watching the giant pandas, including listening to an educational talk by a zookeeper who let them touch a sample of panda fur. About four hours were spent exploring the rest of the zoo. Then they got back in their car and retraced their route.