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Pandas
are returned to the wild
BEIJING - Visitors in the mountainous Wolong Nature Reserve in
Southwest China's Sichuan province were so amused to see people carrying
a panda cub in a basket on Sunday morning that they couldn't stop taking
pictures. What they didn't know was that the animal would soon be taken
to a new habitat high above sea level. Nor did they realize that the
arduous journey the panda would make for an hour and a half along a
snow-covered mountainous path would form part of a programme intended to
release pandas into the wild, said Li Desheng, deputy chief of the
reserve's administrative bureau.
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Staff imitating pandas transfer the six-month-old panda Taotao
to the training field in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan
Province. The giant panda, Caocao and her baby Taotao, the first
giant panda born in a training field for wildness, are now
stepping up to a new phase of training. The six-month-old Taotao
not only handled well the basic skills such as walking, climbing
trees and looking for food in nature, but also cultivated the
sense of alert. |
A panda and her young cub have moved into their new home at a
wildlife sanctuary in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The pair is
adapting well to life in captivity, where they will spend the next two
years before being released into the wild.
In July 2003, Wolong began a project meant to train captive pandas to
live on their own. Its first "graduate", Xiang Xiang, was released to
the wild in April 2006, after undergoing three years of training. In
February 2007, the five-year-old male panda was found dead, bringing an
end to the first phase of the reserve's programme.
Researchers believe Xiang Xiang fell from a high place after
competing with other members of his species for territory and food. |
