Mei Xiang and Tian Tian Backgrounder

Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) and Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN) have resided at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park since Dec. 6, 2000. They are the second pair of pandas to live at the Zoo. Both bears were born at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan Province, China, to wild-born parents.

Mei Xiang, the female, was born July 22, 1998, and is 14 years old. Her name means “beautiful fragrance.” Tian Tian, the male, was born Aug. 27, 1997, and is 15 years old. His name means “more and more.”

Each giant panda has distinctive markings: Mei Xiang has black hip-high “stockings” extending up her hind legs, and the black band across her shoulders is wider in the middle than Tian’s. Her eye patches are oval, and a pale black band runs across the bridge of her nose.

Tian Tian has black “knee socks.” The black band across his shoulders narrows in the middle. His eye patches are shaped like kidney beans, and he has two black dots across the bridge of his nose.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian’s first offspring, and the Zoo’s first surviving panda cub, Tai Shan (tie-SHON), was born July 9, 2005. More than 200,000 votes were cast to name the cub. Tai Shan means “peaceful mountain.”  

Tai Shan has resided at the Wolong’s Beifengxia Base in Ya’an, Sichuan since Feb. 4, 2010.

The National Zoo and the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda signed and a new Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement Jan. 20, 2011. The new agreement allows Mei Xiang and Tian Tian to remain at the National Zoo until Dec. 15, 2015. Any cubs the two produce during that time, including the cub born Sept. 16, will remain at the Zoo until the age of 4 when they will return to China.

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