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Giant Pandas: Journey to the Mountains (3)

By Sun Zhao, Wang Yuqing (People's Daily Overseas New Media)    13:22, April 03, 2019

Giant pandas are one of the world’s endangered species. About 2,000 giant pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of southwest China’s Sichuan province. Meanwhile, the number of giant pandas in captivity totaled more than 500 by the end of 2017.

China started sending captive-bred pandas into the wild in 2006, but failed in its first attempt with the death of giant panda Xiang Xiang.

On March 26, 2009, wild giant panda Lu Xin was found lying on a roadside and was immediately sent to hospital. After she recovered, Lu Xin was released into the Liziping Nature Reserve, symbolizing the first successful release of a giant panda into a non-native habitat.

The success of Lu Xin and the failure of Xiang Xiang inspired researchers to form a new release plan, one in which a giant panda cub and his/her mother panda were trained together. Under this modified plan, giant panda cubs would receive training with their mothers.

Captive-bred giant panda Tao Tao and his wild mother Cao Cao are a successful example of the fine-tuned release plan.

Tao Tao lived with his mother Cao Cao at Hetaoping Giant Panda Training Base, which is located within the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan.

Tao Tao went through a three-phase training program before being returned to the wild, which was conducted in different training enclosures. Whenever exposed to a new training enclosure, Tao Tao would climb trees or run away.

Huang Yan, the deputy chief engineer of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, who is responsible for implementing the modified plan, expressed delight in seeing this, as such behavior revealed an acute sense for dangers.

“Tao Tao is acting more like a wild panda. When hearing a sound that is not his mother’s footstep, he will intuitively run away or climb trees,” he said.

To test Tao Tao’s fight-or-flight response, researchers created a leopard simulation model and played the recorded audio in an area frequented by Tao Tao. After spotting the leopard model, Tao Tao screamed and then ran hundreds of meters away in just a few seconds.

From Tao Tao’s intuitive response, Huang Yan judged that he was capable of recognizing and avoiding dangers.

Following the National Day holidays in 2012, the well-trained Tao Tao freely ran through the forests of Liziping.

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

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)
(Web editor: Hu Ximeng, Bianji)

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