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People are so accustomed to seeing China’s national treasure, the giant panda, immersed in well-protected environments that few can imagine the lovable creatures struggling to survive in the wilderness among all of nature’s predators.
But it is precisely that untamed wilderness where pandas belong, and China is making efforts to send the majority of pandas in captivity back to their original homes.
On October 11, Taotao, a 2-yearold artificially bred panda was released to the wild in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, marking a significant progress in the country’s wilderness survival program for the black-and-white mammal.
A challenging step
Zhang Hemin, chief of the Wolong reserve, was among the first to advocate sending pandas back into the wild.
After graduating from Sichuan University in 1983 with a degree in biology, Zhang joined the Wolong Giant Panda Research and Conservation Center that same year and began studying panda propagation.
“At that time, the Wolong Nature Reserve was home to only 10 pandas, and this number increased to 119 in 2006,” Zhang said. “Among them, 94 were propagated artificially, accounting for about 50 percent of all pandas in captivity in the world.”
This has brought new problems. According to Zhang, the separation of habitats due to human activities has fragmented the wild population of pandas, which has limited mating options and led to a high possibility of inbreeding.
“Releasing pandas to the wild is the best way to deal with these problems, although it is pretty tough,” Zhang said, despite the fact that China has successfully released more than 20 species of animals into the wild over the past two decades, including the crested ibis, Chinese alligator, elk, wild horse, Tarim red deer and yellow-bellied tragopan. “It’s far more difficult to release pandas into the wild due to their low birth rate, uniform diet and fragmented habitat.”
In 2003, Xiangxiang, a 2-yearold male panda, was selected as the strongest candidate to be the country’s first wilderness survival program for panda. Before his release, Xiangxiang had to pass through three phases of training: learning to find food by himself, climbing up trees, and recognizing natural enemies and protecting himself.
After almost three years, Xiangxiang was taken into the mountainous Wuyipeng area of the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 10 wild pandas. A team of experts were able to track his activities through a GPS tag attached to his collar.
On December 13, 2006, the radio positioning system showed Xiangxiang had suddenly traveled a long distance. Nine days later, researchers found him with injuries on his back and his hind feet.
After receiving treatment at the base for 17 days, the animal was re-released on December 30. But the radio signal again became weak on January 7, 2007, and then disappeared. More than one month later, Xiangxiang’s body was found in the woods on February 19. He had a broken rib, injuries to his ears and a large wound on his back. Researchers suspected he had taken refuge in a tree after a fight with wild pandas, but then had fallen to his death.
Xiangxiang’s death was a heavy blow to workers at the Wolong Nature Reserve, and Zhang was soon at the center of harsh controversy. The training program was later suspended due to the Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in May 2008.
The Wolong Nature Reserve’s Hetaoping base was destroyed in the magnitude-8 tremor and its pandas were relocated to the Bifengxia base in nearby Yaan.
Second try
Zhang, despite the failure for the first time, insisted on the program. “This is the best time for releasing pandas back to the wild,” said Zhang, who further explained that the number of captive-bred pandas has already reached a reasonable level to meet reproduction needs and the living environment of wild pandas has improved a lot as well. “Only when the pandas survive in the wild and grow to a bigger group can we save this breed from the distinction line.”
“Sending artificially bred pandas back to nature after providing them with training will help them integrate with wild pandas. This will be conducive to improving genetic diversity among wild pandas regionally, increasing the wild panda population, and enhancing their survival capabilities,” said Wu Daifu, a panda feeder at the Wolong Nature Reserve.
In June 2010, China resumed small-scale training programs for pandas before returning them to nature. The new training focused on the panda cub learning from its mother.
Caocao, a 13-year-old pregnant female panda, was selected to be involved in this program on July 20, 2010. Her baby was going to be trained as the candidate in the program. Caocao was rescued by workers at the Wolong Nature Reserve when she was young. Although she has since lived in captivity, the fact she was raised by her mother in the wild has made her competent in this program.
On August 3, 2010, Caocao gave birth to a baby boy panda, named Taotao, who opened his eyes 35 days after the birth and didn’t see a human being since. When the working staff had to interact with Taotao, they dressed up in panda costumes.
Handlers revised training methods based on lessons learned from the fate of Xiangxiang. “As opposed to Xiangxiang’s captive-bred environment, Taotao had lived and grown in semi-wild conditions since being very little. This means that its fighting capability and survival skills both improved significantly,” Zhang said.
The base had prepared three rounds of training for Caocao’s baby going back to the wild. In the first training cycle, it was fed and raised by its mother and learned basic skills such as climbing. In the second training round, the baby was trained to withstand mud- rock flows, snow disasters and rainstorms with its mother, all the while improving its basic survival skills. It learned to fear humans and hide from them. At the last session, it was trained to recognize enemies and its own kind.
From his mother, Taotao soon learned how to find bamboo by himself, even in heavy snow, and how to recognize different animals and climb trees. To help cubs identify natural enemies, handlers made a model leopard, complete with a roaring growl. When Taotao encountered the model during a test in June, he immediately ran for cover.
When he was released on October 11, Taotao was reluctant to leave his cage at first, despite a handler’s offer of bamboo stalks. He was eventually coaxed out, and a few minutes later he walked down a mountain path, crossed a stream and disappeared into the dense bamboo forest.
Six pandas, along with their mothers, are receiving field training at the Wolong Nature Reserve, according to Zhang. “We hope to release two or three into the wild each year,” he said.
Qi Dunwu, a researcher at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, believes it will take at least 50 years for captive pandas to be able to survive in the wild.
“It requires several steps,” Qi said. “First, a panda released to the wild must feed itself. Second, it must protect its own territory and find a partner. Third, it must breed. Fourth, its offspring must also breed. It will take about three generations for those steps, as the lifespan of a panda is 15 to 30 years.”
But it is precisely that untamed wilderness where pandas belong, and China is making efforts to send the majority of pandas in captivity back to their original homes.
On October 11, Taotao, a 2-yearold artificially bred panda was released to the wild in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, marking a significant progress in the country’s wilderness survival program for the black-and-white mammal.
A challenging step
Zhang Hemin, chief of the Wolong reserve, was among the first to advocate sending pandas back into the wild.
After graduating from Sichuan University in 1983 with a degree in biology, Zhang joined the Wolong Giant Panda Research and Conservation Center that same year and began studying panda propagation.
“At that time, the Wolong Nature Reserve was home to only 10 pandas, and this number increased to 119 in 2006,” Zhang said. “Among them, 94 were propagated artificially, accounting for about 50 percent of all pandas in captivity in the world.”
This has brought new problems. According to Zhang, the separation of habitats due to human activities has fragmented the wild population of pandas, which has limited mating options and led to a high possibility of inbreeding.
“Releasing pandas to the wild is the best way to deal with these problems, although it is pretty tough,” Zhang said, despite the fact that China has successfully released more than 20 species of animals into the wild over the past two decades, including the crested ibis, Chinese alligator, elk, wild horse, Tarim red deer and yellow-bellied tragopan. “It’s far more difficult to release pandas into the wild due to their low birth rate, uniform diet and fragmented habitat.”
In 2003, Xiangxiang, a 2-yearold male panda, was selected as the strongest candidate to be the country’s first wilderness survival program for panda. Before his release, Xiangxiang had to pass through three phases of training: learning to find food by himself, climbing up trees, and recognizing natural enemies and protecting himself.
After almost three years, Xiangxiang was taken into the mountainous Wuyipeng area of the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 10 wild pandas. A team of experts were able to track his activities through a GPS tag attached to his collar.
On December 13, 2006, the radio positioning system showed Xiangxiang had suddenly traveled a long distance. Nine days later, researchers found him with injuries on his back and his hind feet.
After receiving treatment at the base for 17 days, the animal was re-released on December 30. But the radio signal again became weak on January 7, 2007, and then disappeared. More than one month later, Xiangxiang’s body was found in the woods on February 19. He had a broken rib, injuries to his ears and a large wound on his back. Researchers suspected he had taken refuge in a tree after a fight with wild pandas, but then had fallen to his death.
Xiangxiang’s death was a heavy blow to workers at the Wolong Nature Reserve, and Zhang was soon at the center of harsh controversy. The training program was later suspended due to the Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in May 2008.
The Wolong Nature Reserve’s Hetaoping base was destroyed in the magnitude-8 tremor and its pandas were relocated to the Bifengxia base in nearby Yaan.
Second try
Zhang, despite the failure for the first time, insisted on the program. “This is the best time for releasing pandas back to the wild,” said Zhang, who further explained that the number of captive-bred pandas has already reached a reasonable level to meet reproduction needs and the living environment of wild pandas has improved a lot as well. “Only when the pandas survive in the wild and grow to a bigger group can we save this breed from the distinction line.”
“Sending artificially bred pandas back to nature after providing them with training will help them integrate with wild pandas. This will be conducive to improving genetic diversity among wild pandas regionally, increasing the wild panda population, and enhancing their survival capabilities,” said Wu Daifu, a panda feeder at the Wolong Nature Reserve.
In June 2010, China resumed small-scale training programs for pandas before returning them to nature. The new training focused on the panda cub learning from its mother.
Caocao, a 13-year-old pregnant female panda, was selected to be involved in this program on July 20, 2010. Her baby was going to be trained as the candidate in the program. Caocao was rescued by workers at the Wolong Nature Reserve when she was young. Although she has since lived in captivity, the fact she was raised by her mother in the wild has made her competent in this program.
On August 3, 2010, Caocao gave birth to a baby boy panda, named Taotao, who opened his eyes 35 days after the birth and didn’t see a human being since. When the working staff had to interact with Taotao, they dressed up in panda costumes.
Handlers revised training methods based on lessons learned from the fate of Xiangxiang. “As opposed to Xiangxiang’s captive-bred environment, Taotao had lived and grown in semi-wild conditions since being very little. This means that its fighting capability and survival skills both improved significantly,” Zhang said.
The base had prepared three rounds of training for Caocao’s baby going back to the wild. In the first training cycle, it was fed and raised by its mother and learned basic skills such as climbing. In the second training round, the baby was trained to withstand mud- rock flows, snow disasters and rainstorms with its mother, all the while improving its basic survival skills. It learned to fear humans and hide from them. At the last session, it was trained to recognize enemies and its own kind.
From his mother, Taotao soon learned how to find bamboo by himself, even in heavy snow, and how to recognize different animals and climb trees. To help cubs identify natural enemies, handlers made a model leopard, complete with a roaring growl. When Taotao encountered the model during a test in June, he immediately ran for cover.
When he was released on October 11, Taotao was reluctant to leave his cage at first, despite a handler’s offer of bamboo stalks. He was eventually coaxed out, and a few minutes later he walked down a mountain path, crossed a stream and disappeared into the dense bamboo forest.
Six pandas, along with their mothers, are receiving field training at the Wolong Nature Reserve, according to Zhang. “We hope to release two or three into the wild each year,” he said.
Qi Dunwu, a researcher at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, believes it will take at least 50 years for captive pandas to be able to survive in the wild.
“It requires several steps,” Qi said. “First, a panda released to the wild must feed itself. Second, it must protect its own territory and find a partner. Third, it must breed. Fourth, its offspring must also breed. It will take about three generations for those steps, as the lifespan of a panda is 15 to 30 years.”