First stop bamboo as Tao Tao is released
Source: Xinhua |
October 12, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN artificially bred and trained panda has been released into the wild in China's southwest in a move authorities said marked a new phase in the nation's protection efforts.
Tao Tao, a two-year-old male, was born in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province in August 2010.
Shortly after 10am yesterday, he left his cage and ran straight toward a bamboo forest in the Lipingzi Nature Reserve in Sichuan's Shimian County to embrace his new life.
The release of Tao Tao was the second such effort after five-year-old Xiang Xiang in 2006. However, Xiang Xiang died after fights with wild pandas for food and territory about a year after release.
Scientists and experts drew from the experience and altered their training methods to equip pandas for their return to nature.
"As opposed to Xiang Xiang's captive-bred environment, Tao Tao has lived and grown up in semi-wild conditions since being very little. This means that his fighting capability and survival skills both improved significantly," said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.
Before Tao Tao's release, he had gone through three rounds of training, according to the State Forestry Administration and the Sichuan provincial government, which jointly organized yesterday's release.
First, Tao Tao was fed and raised by his mother, and learned basics such as climbing from her. Second, Tao Tao withstood mud-rock flows, snow disasters and rainstorms with his mother, all the while improving his basic skills. He learned to fear humans and hide from them. During the third session, Tao Tao was trained to recognize enemies and his own kind.
"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 number of wild pandas, and enhancing their survival capabilities," Wu Daifu, Tao Tao's feeder, said.
However, Zhang worried about whether Tao Tao could handle the inevitable competition with wild pandas and avoid natural enemies such as bears, leopards and wolves.
"Even though we have used new training methods, Tao Tao is only the second such panda released to nature, and we remain at the experimental stage," said Zhang.
The number of wild pandas in China has increased to more than 1,600 and there are 342 captive-bred pandas, Yin Hong, vice chief of the State Forestry Administration, said.
Tao Tao, a two-year-old male, was born in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province in August 2010.
Shortly after 10am yesterday, he left his cage and ran straight toward a bamboo forest in the Lipingzi Nature Reserve in Sichuan's Shimian County to embrace his new life.
The release of Tao Tao was the second such effort after five-year-old Xiang Xiang in 2006. However, Xiang Xiang died after fights with wild pandas for food and territory about a year after release.
Scientists and experts drew from the experience and altered their training methods to equip pandas for their return to nature.
"As opposed to Xiang Xiang's captive-bred environment, Tao Tao has lived and grown up in semi-wild conditions since being very little. This means that his fighting capability and survival skills both improved significantly," said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.
Before Tao Tao's release, he had gone through three rounds of training, according to the State Forestry Administration and the Sichuan provincial government, which jointly organized yesterday's release.
First, Tao Tao was fed and raised by his mother, and learned basics such as climbing from her. Second, Tao Tao withstood mud-rock flows, snow disasters and rainstorms with his mother, all the while improving his basic skills. He learned to fear humans and hide from them. During the third session, Tao Tao was trained to recognize enemies and his own kind.
"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 number of wild pandas, and enhancing their survival capabilities," Wu Daifu, Tao Tao's feeder, said.
However, Zhang worried about whether Tao Tao could handle the inevitable competition with wild pandas and avoid natural enemies such as bears, leopards and wolves.
"Even though we have used new training methods, Tao Tao is only the second such panda released to nature, and we remain at the experimental stage," said Zhang.
The number of wild pandas in China has increased to more than 1,600 and there are 342 captive-bred pandas, Yin Hong, vice chief of the State Forestry Administration, said.
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