This summer, a documentary about giant pandas topped the trending searches on popular Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Under the hashtag “Giant Panda Xian Xian takes the first step into the wild with her cub,” many users made comments. One of them read, “The moment they step out of their enclosure and into nature is truly awesome.”
In the footage, Xian Xian’s cub follows his mother’s steps entering a larger wilderness training field, thus starting a year-long program preparing for their return to nature. In the vast expanse, they gradually disappear into the lush greenery, merging into the embrace of nature.
Ma Xiaoyu, an intern giant panda keeper from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who participated in the release, was deeply moved by this scene. “Giant pandas are born in nature, and they should return to nature,” she said.
This documentary, Panda Family, was jointly produced by Hunan Satellite TV channel, video streaming platform Mango TV and the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP). It records the fascinating lives of three panda families living in the Shenshuping panda base, part of the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province. The base is an affiliate of the CCRCGP.
The pandas sent for wilderness training are Xian Xian and her eldest son. The cub has already shown strong wild instincts and will soon face the challenge of independent survival. Meanwhile, Xian Xian’s younger son is being raised by his foster mother Rui Rui at the Shenshuping base, enjoying a carefree life in captivity. These two cubs, born close together and sharing the same bloodline, have embarked on vastly different life paths.
Although their lives may take different paths, these paths will ultimately lead to the same destination. The documentary aims to make viewers aware that captive breeding is important, but it is only part of rebuilding the wild giant panda population. The ultimate goal of giant panda conservation is to release them into the wild.
Professor Pan Wenshi, a leading figure in Chinese biology and a researcher of wild giant pandas, once said, “Pandas have evolved over millions of years, not for the purpose of entertaining humans in zoos. They are meant to be born, grow, endure obstacles, look for love, give birth, and die in the wild. That is the true essence of their life.”
New attempt
Giant panda reintroduction refers to acclimatizing and releasing captive-bred giant pandas in their historical habitats to live and reproduce so as to rebuild the wild population of the species. The CCRCGP has pioneered a method of wilderness training in which the mother panda leads her cubs into the wild.
Some people have questioned the reintroduction of giant pandas, arguing that throwing raised pandas into the wild is cruel. “The reintroduction is carried out after the captive-bred population has grown to a certain size,” Wu Daifu, Director of the Hetaoping panda base in Wolong, told China Green Times.
According to data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration in the first quarter of this year, the total wild population of giant pandas in China had grown from about 1,100 in the 1980s to nearly 1,900 today, and the global captive population of giant pandas had reached 728. In 2021, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded the threat status of giant pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” indicating that China’s giant panda conservation efforts have been recognized by the international community.
However, due to geographical barriers such as large rivers, mountains and roads, as well as human interference, wild giant pandas have been divided into 33 separate sub-populations. Among them, 18 sub-populations have fewer than 10 individuals, facing the risk of local extinction.
To change the status of small sub-populations on the verge of extinction and ensure the continued survival of the entire giant panda population, the CCRCGP has been implementing a giant panda reintroduction program since 2003.
Before a giant panda’s release to the wild, it will undergo multiple stages of wilderness training for three to seven years.
In April 2006, the male sub-adult giant panda Xiang Xiang was released into the wild after training. However, less than a year later, his body was found in the snow. It was later determined that Xiang Xiang had fallen from a height and sustained severe injuries during a fight with wild-born giant pandas over territory and food, leading to his death.
The CCRCGP researched the reasons for the failure of Xiang Xiang’s wild release. The giant panda began wilderness training during his sub-adult stage without his mother’s companionship. This not only made it easier for Xiang Xiang to become dependent on humans, but also prevented him from learning survival skills from his mother, resulting in insufficient wild survival abilities. At the same time, the mountain forest where Xiang Xiang was released had a saturated population, lacking sufficient living space.
Now, go home
From that point on, the CCRCGP began to improve its wilderness training method and first proposed the mother-led model in 2010. Mother-led training refers to the cub following its mother from birth, gradually learning survival skills in nature.
On August 3 of that year, it was raining heavily, and the giant panda Cao Cao, who was receiving wilderness training, was about to give birth. But her enclosure that collapsed in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake had not been fully rebuilt, and the continuous heavy rain made the situation even worse. Fortunately, Cao Cao gave birth to a healthy male cub, Tao Tao. He was also the world’s first giant panda cub born in a wild training base.
“After the cub was born, we were worried that it might get wet and sick, so we built a shed in the wild enclosure beforehand. But Cao Cao ignored the shed and kept her baby in her arms, getting wet in the rain,” said Wu. “Later, we were surprised to find that the rain flowed down the fur of her back, and the baby panda didn’t get wet at all.”
Cao Cao’s behavior shows that giant pandas have their own survival skills based on their long evolutionary history.
Tao Tao completed training after experiencing natural disasters such as snowstorms, heavy rains and mudslides. Under his mother’s guidance, Tao Tao’s wild instincts grew stronger, and he learned to face predators, recognize the animals in his environment and to avoid humans.
After considering factors such as population density, habitat quality and area, the biomass of the bamboo species pandas eat, and the genetic background of the released giant pandas, the researchers selected the most appropriate release site.
On October 11, 2012, Tao Tao, who was 2 years old, walked out of the gate of his enclosure and slowly disappeared into a lush bamboo forest in the Lizhiping Nature Reserve in Ya’an, Sichuan Province.
His release was followed by years of tracking and monitoring.
At the end of 2017, researchers unexpectedly discovered a giant panda in the wild, which was confirmed to be Tao Tao. After a physical examination, Tao Tao was found to be in good health and growing. He was released again, wearing a GPS collar. Now, Tao Tao has been confirmed to have his own cubs in the wild.
So far, the CCRCGP has released 11 bred giant pandas, with nine surviving, resulting in a survival rate of over 81.8 percent. A technical system for the wilderness training and reintroduction of giant pandas has been established. “This survival rate is much higher than the success rate of other wild releases of large animals internationally,” Wu said.
In 2017, the CCRCGP initiated a pilot program to increase the genetic diversity of captive-bred pandas by temporarily releasing female pandas into the wild. After becoming pregnant in the wild, the pandas are retrieved to give birth in captivity, introducing new genetics into the breeding program.
No need to worry
There is a moment in the documentary that is very sentimental, when an intern keeper asks, “Do you think the pandas you’ve raised will remember you?”
“Probably not, why should pandas remember us?” Li Dehong, a panda keeper at the Shenshuping base, responded.
For Li and his colleagues, the heartfelt desire persists that every panda, even when leaving their nurturing hands, will live healthily and safely in the wild’s vast expanse.
The key technique of releasing captive pandas into the wild involves three main stages: training, release and monitoring. Over the past 20 years, generations of researchers have devoted efforts and wisdom to this endeavor.
Upon release, researchers fortify panda mothers’ nutrition. This is done while mothers are away from their cubs, and a keeper who is disguised as a panda provides food from a distance to ensure minimal human impact. The growth, development and behavior of cubs are monitored by both instruments and direct observation. Daily habitat patrols, signal checks and data recording track released pandas’wellbeing.
“Giant pandas can reproduce and find their homes in nature,” Mu Shijie told Southern Metropolis Entertainment magazine. Mu joined the panda wilderness training and release team in 2010. Due to years of trudging over mountains and rivers, he needed to undergo surgery to repair his severely worn knee joints. After raising pandas at the Shenshuping base for three years, he recovered somewhat and applied to return to his position at the beginning of this year. “Only panda mothers can teach their cubs how to find food, water and shelter, and avoid predators in the wild. Humans cannot teach cubs to be wild,” he said.
Mu explained that the wild environment is quite complex, with significant temperature differences between day and night, and extreme weather such as heavy rain, hail and fog during the rainy season. “Monitoring pandas in the wild is our routine work, rain or shine, twice a day,” he said.
Unlike the affectionate feeding in captivity, pandas undergoing wilderness training do not know that a group of people is monitoring and caring for their growth and development, nor do they give emotional responses to the monitors. “Those difficulties are not a big deal for us. As long as pandas and their cubs are healthy in the wild, it doesn’t matter if we have to work harder,” said Mu, whose son has also become a giant panda keeper under his influence.
Mu said he bid farewell to Tao Tao with a blessing: “Now you are on your own. I don’t know if we will meet again in this life. I hope you grow up healthily and safely in nature, use all the skills your mother taught you, establish your own territory, reproduce, and have a large family of descendants! Goodbye!”
On July 24, at the Hetaoping base, after a heavy rainstorm, the mountain torrents were treacherous. Mu carried food, crossed the turbulent river, and trekked along the mountain path to the training area to ensure the safety of Xian Xian and her cub. Surprisingly, even in the rain, Xian Xian’s cub climbed a tall tree and played happily. That kind of nature, freedom and ease are experiences that captive pandas rarely have.
In the latest episode of the documentary, released in August, the intern keepers finally saw Xian Xian and her older cub at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain: Xian Xian’s cub lazily rested in a tree dozens of meters high, enjoying its exclusive freedom in paradise.
“He scales the tree to its utmost height, embracing a sense of liberation as he acts without constraint, free to pursue his every desire. In that fleeting moment, one can sense the untamed spirit that resides within the heart of a wild animal,” Ma said.
The mountains are high and the roads long, yet a day of reunion will surely come. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
