“They’re beautiful and they’re different and I think they’re fascinating,” says President Clinton, who got a sneak peak at the pandas on Saturday. Clinton predicts the pair will be an instant hit with visitors.

The pandas have spent the last month getting used to their new home, which features an outdoor habitat of an open cave-like grotto specially crafted to look like a setting in southwestern China’s bamboo forest. During the summertime, the area will be air-conditioned to keep the pair cool.

Eagerly Awaited

While Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the new pair’s famous predecessors lived at the National Zoo from 1972 to 1992 and 1999 respectively, the pandas were the zoo’s most popular exhibit. Visitors never seemed to tire of watching the pudgy couple munch bamboo. With the eagerly awaited new pair, many hold out for the appearance of a baby panda sometime in the future.

In the meantime, the pandas’ popularity should give a much-needed boost to the fortunes of their wild cousins. With perhaps only 1,000 animals surviving in the wild bamboo forests in the mountains of China, the panda is one of the world’s most endangered mammals. But their outlook seems to be improving, and Mei Xiang and Tian Tian can help by promoting interest in the future of their species.

“Pandas are so appealing, they are really successful in getting people interested in conservation,” says Karen Baragona, a panda expert with the World Wildlife Fund, the largest privately supported conservation organization in the world. The fund is known by its distinctive panda logo.

In China, the panda is viewed as a national treasure, a symbol not only of conservation but of the country itself. Abroad, their tremendous international appeal has earned them a unique status as a representative of endangered species and conservation efforts worldwide.

“By learning about pandas, people learn what it takes to save endangered species, ” says Baragona. Learning about pandas begins with learning about the habitat in which they live, and the other animals that share their forests.

Though their range was once vast, giant pandas today live only in fragmented pockets of forest, a cramped arrangement susceptible to constant pressure from the area’s dominant species—the human. Desperate for a livelihood, local residents have cleared large areas of forest for agriculture and timber, putting the squeeze on not only the panda, but on the many other species that share its home range.

The rare, goat-like takin, clouded leopard, golden monkey, red panda, and golden pheasant also dwell in these mountainous forests, which are rich with diverse tree species and important medicinal plants. Like the giant panda, these species, many found nowhere else in the world, are feeling the pinch of habitat destruction.

Reaching Out Beyond the Zoo

But the region’s famous new ambassadors to Washington, D.C., may be able to help all who call these forests home, not only by increasing awareness but by providing a more immediately tangible benefit—cash. For the honor of hosting Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, the National Zoo will donate U.S. $10 million dollars over the next 10 years to the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

The much-needed funds will support the protection of crucial forest habitat through parks and reserves, and the creation of animal migration corridors free from human interference.

While the primary goal is the protection of the wild panda population, the end result will be a little more breathing room for all animals living in one of Earth’s truly special places.

“Pandas are an umbrella species,” says Baragona. “Their protection has a sheltering effect on all the plants and animals of their ecosystem.”

So dollars spent on the charismatic panda can have an equally beneficial effect on the obscure giant salamander. Two new residents in Washington, D.C., can help ensure the permanent protection of mountainous, misty forests half a world away.

In the United States, get full coverage of this story on tonight’s cable television broadcast of the National Geographic Today news show at 7 p.m. ET.