Giant Pandas: Journey to the Mountains (1)

Giant pandas represent a cultural icon and a source of national pride in China, the only country that is home to giant pandas. To save these iconic animals that are highly endangered, China has spent decades perfecting breeding methods.

The captive-bred panda program has achieved remarkable results, as the population grew from 161 in 2002 to 518 in 2016.

“The country has 1,864 wild giant pandas, up from 1,114 decades ago. Panda natural reserves rose to 67 from 15 and the habitat has nearly doubled to 2.58 million hectares,” Yang Chao, an official of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, said at a press conference.

As the endangered situation for giant pandas eased, researchers began to shift their focus on sending captive-bred pandas back to the wild.

As of today, eleven giant pandas bred in captivity have been released into the wild, including the nine now living in Liziping Natural Reserve in Ya’an.

But the efforts were not successful at first. The first-ever captive-bred giant panda released into the wild fell to its death months after its release, frustrating efforts to release giant pandas into the wild.

Back in the summer of 2003, Xiang Xiang, a two-year-old male giant panda, was selected to receive training for living in the wild at the Hetaoping Panda Base within the Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas in Sichuan.

In April 2006, well-trained Xiang Xiang, wearing a tracking collar, was released into Balang Mountain at the Wolong Nature Reserve.

For his first few months in the wild, data showed everything was going well.

However, on December 13, 2006, the data indicated that Xiang Xiang was moving in a long and abnormal track, signaling that something wrong.

After a week of research, Xiang Xiang was found injured in a bamboo forest with badly wounded hind legs.

After an examination and time to rest back at the panda base, Xiang Xiang was released again.

Just a few days later, however, the signal from Xiang Xiang’s collar continuously weakened until it finally disappeared.

A month later, his dead body was found in snow-covered ground.

An autopsy revealed that Xiang Xiang died of a fatal wound after accidently falling off a cliff in his escape from a wild male panda that just defeated Xiang Xiang in a fight for territory.

Liu Bin, a giant panda breeder of Xiang Xiang, never thought that fights between giant pandas in the wild would be so fierce. He said, “From now on, pandas should be released into places with less wild giant pandas and more efforts should be done to improve captive-bred pandas’ capability in attacking and defending.”

Though frustrated by the death of Xiang Xiang, giant panda researchers continue to return captive-bred giant pandas into the wild—at a slower but steadier pace.