As National Zoo awaits new pandas, David Rubenstein pledges $10 million

The National Zoo announced Tuesday that local philanthropist David Rubenstein has pledged $10 million to support its giant panda conservation program.

The pledge comes as the zoo awaits the arrival this fall of two new giant pandas – an event that will continue a program at the Smithsonian facility that goes back more than 50 years.

Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based global investment firm, has now provided the zoo $22 million for its giant panda research over more than a decade.

After a $4.5 million gift in 2011, the zoo’s panda compound was named the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat.

“David Rubenstein’s long-term support has transformed our giant panda program and, in turn, the future of this magnificent species and its native habitat,” National Zoo director Brandie Smith said in a statement. “David understands the work to save giant pandas is larger than one person, one organization or one nation.”

The zoo is in the midst of a 10-year, $25 million drive to support its giant panda programs. The zoo’s campaign is part of the $2.5 billion “Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future” fundraising effort the institution unveiled last week.

In an interview Saturday, Rubenstein said giant pandas are “a gigantic draw for the National Zoo.”

“I told (the zoo) I’d be happy to do this,” he said. “It’s what they requested … I don’t know if I’ll do it forever, because I’m getting older. They might have to find another person at some point, but I’m happy to do it now.

“Because I had done it before, they came to me and I said, ‘Yes,’ ” he said.

Rubenstein, who has donated many millions of dollars over the years to Washington-area institutions and cultural projects, turned 75 last month.

The giant panda habitat is being renovated in anticipation of the arrival from China of the zoo’s newest giant pandas – Bao Li (BOW-lee), a 3-year-old male, and Qing Bao (ching-BOW), a female who turned 3 last week.

Bao Li has roots in Washington. He is the son of Bao Bao, a female giant panda that was born at the zoo in 2013, and the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, the panda couple that departed for China with their son, Xiao Qi Ji, last November.

Most giant pandas at the zoo have been owned and leased by China, and eventually returned there as part of ongoing agreements. The zoo’s first two – Ling Ling, a female, and Hsing Hsing, a male – were gifts to the U.S. by the Chinese government in 1972. They died at the zoo in the 1990s.

The zoo has been without giant pandas since the most recent black-and-white residents left Nov. 8. There was concern at the time that the zoo might not get more giant pandas right away. But the wait was not long.

“I think there’s an effort on both sides to improve the U.S.-China relationship, and this is part of it,” Rubenstein said. “I think the governments on both sides wanted to make this happen.”

The zoo has not said when the new pandas will arrive.

They are coming on a 10-year lease, ending in April 2034, during which the zoo will pay the China Wildlife and Conservation Association $1 million a year, the zoo said last May.

The zoo has said it hopes the new pandas will some day mate and produce cubs of their own.