Wild Giant Panda Spotted in Foping, Shaanxi

On the morning of January 14, a wild giant panda was spotted near the entrance of the Daguping Conservation Station in the Foping National Nature Reserve, Shaanxi. Zhang Zhongping, a local villager from Daguping Village, encountered the panda while on a routine patrol and quickly captured this rare moment on his mobile phone.

Zhang recalled that the panda moved swiftly. Within the brief moment it took for him to take out his phone and start recording, the panda had already crossed the panda passageway at the entrance of the conservation station and walked across the “Heart Bridge” connecting the station with the village committee. In the footage, the panda appears agile and endearing, with a determined gaze as it swiftly entered the bamboo forest. From the moment Zhang first spotted the panda to the moment it disappeared into the hillside bamboo forest, only 35 seconds had passed.

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Zhang observed that the panda appeared to be an adult with strong and steady movements, indicating it was a healthy individual. He Xianbo, a senior engineer at the Foping Nature Reserve, explained that wild giant pandas follow a clear seasonal migration pattern. As temperatures drop in autumn, they tend to move from higher to lower altitudes in search of fresh, one-year-old bamboo leaves to feed on. The appearance of the panda at Daguping Village, located at an elevation of about 1,200 meters, fits this pattern of seasonal behavior.

The Foping National Nature Reserve, located in the northwest of Foping County, is the first nature reserve in the Qinling Mountains primarily focused on protecting giant pandas and other wildlife. According to the Fourth National Giant Panda Survey, there are 67 giant pandas (excluding cubs) living in the 292.40 square kilometers of the Foping Reserve. In the core and buffer zones, one panda is found every 1.5 square kilometers, making it the region with the highest panda population density in China. It is also one of the areas with the highest frequency of panda sightings in the wild.

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Daguping, known as “Panda Village,” is located in a region where the village collective land is interspersed with the national forest of the Foping Nature Reserve. The recent sighting of a giant panda in Daguping is further evidence of the stable and increasing population of pandas in the reserve.

This exciting event highlights the positive impact of ongoing conservation efforts in the Foping area, contributing to the recovery and growth of the giant panda population in the wild.