Saving pandas still a task

The IUCN has downgraded the giant panda from "endangered" to "vulnerable". At the end of 2013, there were 1,864 pandas in the wild. As Huang Zhiling reports from Wolong, Southwest China's Sichuan province, plenty of work remains to be done.

Releasing giant pandas into the wild is a tricky business. A giant panda born in captivity at the Chengdu Research Base of the Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province died in September 2016 after being attacked by an unknown animal.

In March, He Sheng, a 3-year-old male panda, was released into the Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian, a county in Sichuan. But experts at the base became concerned after receiving erratic signals from a GPS tag on his neck on Sept 27 and launched a search for the animal. The panda's body was discovered the next day with wounds on its right shoulder, ear and leg.