Good news has recently come from the Shifang Management Station of the Giant Panda National Park: fresh wild giant panda droppings were discovered during a routine patrol. According to Yang Kai, deputy director of the station, the droppings have already been sent to a professional institution for DNA analysis, and there is a possibility that they belong to a newly born wild panda not yet recorded in the official database.
On April 4, patrol officer Chen Yijun found the fresh panda droppings while carrying out routine patrol work. In response, the Deyang Panda Branch promptly organized a specialized monitoring team made up of staff from the Shifang Station and line survey technicians to launch a targeted monitoring investigation in the area.
The investigation revealed that the panda droppings were located in a place called Sanbaiti, Shifang City, at an altitude of approximately 1,900 meters. The surrounding environment featured dense vegetation and flat terrain, indicating a healthy habitat. Visible remnants of fresh bamboo joints and bamboo leaves were found in the droppings, suggesting they were 2–3 days old. Following standard procedures, technicians collected samples and sent them for DNA testing.
To further understand the panda’s activity range, the special monitoring team conducted a follow-up investigation within a 2-kilometer radius of the site and installed three infrared cameras to monitor and capture real-time images of the panda.
“This is the third time since the establishment of the Giant Panda National Park in 2021 that traces of wild pandas have been found in the Shifang area,” said Yang Kai. He added that this shows the effectiveness of the park’s conservation and ecological restoration efforts, which have improved the habitat for pandas. The monitoring team will collect baseline data from the droppings, record the geographic coordinates, and install infrared cameras to hopefully capture footage of the panda.
Yang Kai also explained that every panda discovered in the wild undergoes DNA testing and is registered in a dedicated database. If the DNA of this sample does not match any existing entries, it would confirm the presence of a newly born wild panda—further proof that the ecological environment is improving and that pandas are reproducing successfully.
The Shifang area of the Giant Panda National Park is located in the core zone of the southern Minshan Mountains, a traditional habitat for the Jiuding Mountain subpopulation of pandas. In recent years, the Shifang Management Station has enhanced habitat conditions for pandas and other wildlife by implementing ecological restoration, strengthening monitoring and protection efforts, and adopting the “4+2” patrol and monitoring model. As a result, the activity range of the Jiuding Mountain panda subpopulation has expanded, and sightings of pandas “enjoying spring outings” have become more frequent, indicating a positive trend in population growth.