Pandas trained for harsh life out in the wild

At 8 am on Thursday, keepers from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve used fresh bamboo shoots to lure Cao Cao, a 10-year-old panda, and her male cub, Tao Tao, into separate cages.

Both were transported to a field training area 2,400 to 2,800 meters above sea level, arriving 90 minutes later. When the cages were opened, both ran away and disappeared immediately.

"Staying in the training area will prove vital to Tao Tao before he is sent to the wild in the autumn," said Zhang Hemin, chief of the administrative bureau of the Wolong Nature Reserve, in Wenchuan county, in Sichuan province.