Pandas into the wild planned
Source: Agencies |
December 22, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA will begin sending pandas bred in captivity into a controlled wilderness area in the southwestern province of Sichuan next month, the most ambitious attempt to rebuild the country's depleted population of giant pandas in the wild.
The first six pandas selected from 108 raised by the Chengdu Giant Panda Rehabilitation Project - the world's largest captive bred population of giant pandas - will be released to a protected natural area covering more than 780 hectares.
"Rather than keeping them in their enclosures, we will spend the next 50 years helping them return to their natural habitat, which is the ultimate goal of the Chengdu Panda Base," Zhang Zhihe, director of the base, told a briefing yesterday.
The pandas, bred through artificial insemination, will be released in batches and monitored as they acclimate. Those that perform well in an initial area will be released into the larger, primary controlled wilderness area.
The first six pandas range in age from two to four and were chosen on the basis of gender ratio and health. Zhang acknowledged the effort carries risks and noted that other rehabilitation programs have had little success.
"We have collected some experience of rehabilitation from other organizations who did that several times before," Zhang said. "As you all know, it's a long-term procedure."
"As we are still at the explorer stage, nobody can guarantee the successful result of this release."
Considered a national treasure, pandas have come back from the brink of extinction while remaining under threat from logging, agriculture and China's increasing population. In 2004, a census by the Worldwide Fund for Nature counted 1,600 pandas in the wild, mostly in Sichuan Province.
Pandas are difficult to breed because females ovulate only once a year and can only become pregnant during that two- or three-day period.
The first six pandas selected from 108 raised by the Chengdu Giant Panda Rehabilitation Project - the world's largest captive bred population of giant pandas - will be released to a protected natural area covering more than 780 hectares.
"Rather than keeping them in their enclosures, we will spend the next 50 years helping them return to their natural habitat, which is the ultimate goal of the Chengdu Panda Base," Zhang Zhihe, director of the base, told a briefing yesterday.
The pandas, bred through artificial insemination, will be released in batches and monitored as they acclimate. Those that perform well in an initial area will be released into the larger, primary controlled wilderness area.
The first six pandas range in age from two to four and were chosen on the basis of gender ratio and health. Zhang acknowledged the effort carries risks and noted that other rehabilitation programs have had little success.
"We have collected some experience of rehabilitation from other organizations who did that several times before," Zhang said. "As you all know, it's a long-term procedure."
"As we are still at the explorer stage, nobody can guarantee the successful result of this release."
Considered a national treasure, pandas have come back from the brink of extinction while remaining under threat from logging, agriculture and China's increasing population. In 2004, a census by the Worldwide Fund for Nature counted 1,600 pandas in the wild, mostly in Sichuan Province.
Pandas are difficult to breed because females ovulate only once a year and can only become pregnant during that two- or three-day period.
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