Black bears may improve panda release methods

China's giant pandas may be getting a hand from their North American cousins as well as orangutans, tigers and elephants.

The panda population in China is "still very vulnerable", and needs help, according to US researcher Ben Kilham, who will be featured in the new IMAX 3D film Pandas, scheduled for release in April.

The movie was made in cooperation with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan province and directed by Drew Fellman, a producer and writer who previously worked on the documentaries Born to Be Wild (2011) and Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (2014).