China Panda Base released Another Giant Panda to the Wild

CHENGDU, China - Oct. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- On October 14, 2014, giant panda Xu Xue was released into the wild in the Ya’an city’s Liziping National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

In the 2012, Xue Xue began its two years’ comprehensive training in habitat selection, foraging, and avoiding natural enemies with a simulated wild environment. After that, it was said to have a good physical fitness condition, and be in capable of surviving in the Liziping Natural Reserve, according to the researcher in the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP).

When the cage was open, Xue Xue looked around and waited, and walked out of the cage in two or three minutes. But it quickly returned to the cage. After repeated patient guidance by the staff, Xue Xue has finally come out from the cage again, and walked straight toward the woods after a brief observation.

China has started releasing captive-bred pandas since 2006. And two-year-old female Xue Xue is the fourth one, following Xiang Xiang, Tao Tao and Zhang Xiang. However, the five-year-old male panda Xiang Xiang died after fighting with other males about a year later. Since then, researchers have drawn lessons from the failure and improved the training methods so as to help the giant pandas adapt to the cruel wild better. Zhang Xiang, the first female panda was released in November 2013. (Know about Chengdu on http://www.easytourchina.com/city-c18-chengdu)

Scientists have been following the released-pandas by extracting ID identification chips and with the help of GPS collars, radio positioning tools. Anyway, monitoring data shows that these new guests of the wild are doing well.

By far, the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda has bred 243 giant panda, 208 of which survived. It is said that another panda, female Xin Yuan at the age of two, will also be released in November, in the company of her mother till she can live in the wild on her own. (Know more about Giant Panda Breeding Research Base: http://www.easytourchina.com/scene-v17-giant-panda-breedi...)