Released into the Wild After “Graduation”: The Wild Giant Panda Population Increases Significantly

Rewilding and releasing captive pandas into the wild is a crucial method for strengthening wild giant panda populations. Over the years, Chinese researchers have established a comprehensive system for wild training and release monitoring of giant pandas, achieving excellent results in practice. Nowadays, captive giant panda mothers, along with their cubs, learn essential survival skills in the wild, and the cubs successfully integrate into their natural environment (Why Reintroduce Giant Pandas into the Wild?).

Panda Moms Teach Their Cubs New Skills

Early in the morning, at the Wolong Hetaoping Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, a captive giant panda named Tiantian and her cub, who are undergoing wild training, are about to learn new skills together.

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From birth, the panda cubs live in a semi-wild training enclosure of about 2,000 square meters, where they gradually learn survival skills in the wild by following their mothers. When the cubs reach around one year old, they move to a much larger training enclosure, about 100 times the size, where they continue learning alongside their mothers. This is the pioneering “mother-rearing” method developed by the Panda Center. After a half-hour car ride and a one-hour hike, reporters followed Tiantian and her cub to their “new home.”

As soon as the gate opened, Tiantian and her cub quickly climbed up the steep slope, exploring their new environment. Soon, they disappeared into the forest, out of sight. Over the next year or more, the cub will continue to learn survival skills such as spatial recognition, predator identification, foraging, finding water sources, and avoiding danger, all under the guidance of its mother in a forested area of over 200,000 square meters. Meanwhile, staff from the Panda Center will monitor their progress, dressed in camouflage, both inside and outside the training enclosure.

Released Into The Wild After Graduation

Releasing “Graduates” into the Wild: The Recovery and Growth of Small Panda Populations

From birth, these panda cubs live with their mothers, learning essential survival skills such as foraging, finding water sources, and avoiding predators in the wild. How well do they learn? And where do they go after completing their training?

While Tiantian and her cub embark on the second phase of their “learning” journey, two other pairs of pandas from the captive panda family, Bos and her cub, and Zhichun and her cub, have already been undergoing the second phase of wild training for six months.

Where do these giant pandas go after “graduating” from wild training? Among the 33 isolated wild giant panda populations in China, 22 are at risk of extinction. Lizi Ping in Shimian, Ya’an, Sichuan, located in the Xiaoxiangling mountain range, was chosen as the first site for proactive human intervention due to its small panda population and low genetic diversity. Currently, eight pandas trained in the wild have been released here, and those that survived have reached breeding age.

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In January this year, an infrared camera in Shimian captured a giant panda mother with a cub about one and a half years old. On February 17th, another infrared camera recorded two giant pandas mating in the snow. These monitoring data indicate that the small panda population in the Xiaoxiangling mountain range is gradually recovering.

Nationally, China has established three rewilding and release sites for giant pandas: Lizi Ping in Xiaoxiangling, Longxi-Hongkou, and Daxiangling. Over the past 20 years, 12 captive giant pandas have been successfully rewilded and released, 10 of which have survived. The successful rewilding and release of giant pandas have contributed to the recovery and strengthening of two small panda populations in the Xiaoxiangling and southern Minshan mountain ranges.