Lost wild panda guided back to nature reserve
Print Edition
A VILLAGER in Zhaojue County in southwest China’s Sichuan Province discovered a wild panda on Wednesday and protected the animal with other villagers until help arrived and the panda transferred to a nature reserve early yesterday.
Gyalpo Tsopug, from Yimudi Township, discovered the female panda believed to be about two years old by a bamboo forest near his house at about 1pm on Wednesday. “We saw it running hundreds of meters along a tunnel and it disappeared in the forest,” he said.
He reported the sighting to the village and township authority. The Yimudi Township government mobilized more than 50 people around a hill to prevent the panda from being poached, according to Ngokgu Rigti, Party secretary of the Yimudi township government.
“We were afraid the panda would run to open ground where illegal poachers are around,” he said, adding that villagers had been trying to keep the panda in an area and not to let it get out.
Due to a lack of bamboos for the panda to eat and risk of poachers, the township government decided to move the animal to neighboring Dafengding National Nature Reserve in Meigu County, 170km away from the town.
The panda left the town at 7:35pm on Thursday and arrived at the nature reserve at about 1am yesterday. It had injuries on the right leg and needed further treatment, according to Fang Kui, head of the nature reserve administration.
Fang said, according to experts, the panda probably got lost from its mother in a nearby nature reserve and mistakenly walked into the village.
Giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species. About 1,600 live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, while more than 300 live in captivity.
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