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Into the wild for 2 more pandas
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CHINA will release another two captive-bred giant pandas into the wild this year, Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, said yesterday.
Giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species. About 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, while more than 300 live in captivity.
China started sending captive-bred pandas into the wild in 2006 when 5-year-old male panda Xiang Xiang was released. However, about a year later Xiang Xiang died after fighting with other pandas over food and territory.
Scientists have since improved training methods to help pandas better adapt to the wild.
In October 2012, Tao Tao, a male panda, was successfully released in the Liziping nature reserve, Sichuan.
In November 2013, the first artificially bred female giant panda Zhang Xiang was also released.
Researchers have been following them with the help of GPS collars, radio positioning tools and DNA extracted from their spoor. They have also been studying the pandas’ activities and hormones.
The animals have been living well in the wild, said Zhang.
“We will continue to release artificially bred and trained pandas into nature. This is our key task for the future.”
Experts believe that sending captive-bred pandas back to the nature after providing them with sufficient training will help them integrate with wild pandas. This will help improve genetic diversity among wild pandas, increasing the number of wild pandas, and enhance their survival capabilities.
The artificially bred panda population, now 300, was just 10 in the 1990s.
“This is a big success, meanwhile, we must release them to nature, for their real home is there,” Zhang said.
Earlier this year, an alliance to protect giant pandas and their habitat was set up by the World Wide Fund for Nature and administrations in Sichuan.
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