Years of patience yields bounty, as giant panda numbers rebound

Many years of tireless effort have yielded a rich bounty — with Chinese scientists recently unveiling the secrets behind the renewal of the giant panda's population and its habits in the wild.

After nearly two decades of monitoring the panda's habits since starting surveillance in 2000, a dozen scientists from Sichuan province in southwestern China made a breakthrough in returning pandas to nature through a population renewal project whose methods they say have extended the wild animal's life.

In May, their findings won them first prize in the province's 2017 Science and Technology Progress Awards.

"The research mainly focused on the ecology, to fully understand the nature of wild pandas," said Zhang Zejun, who headed the research project.

The research also corrected surprising misconceptions about pandas, Zhang said.

For example, pandas were generally believed to be crepuscular animals — active at twilight or just before dawn — with them snacking into the wee hours.

However, the groundbreaking research found that wild pandas were inclined to activities in the daytime, the experts said.

It turns out that factors affecting their living environment can vary with seasons and different areas, and that autumn is the best time to return giant pandas to nature.

The research first found that the minimum area needed for giant panda's breeding requirements is 114.7 square kilometers.

In addition, scientists designed wide habitat corridors for pandas and created 14 of the corridors in Sichuan province, expanding a better living environment for wild pandas.

"The habitat corridors are available for exchanges among different wild pandas to avoid the phenomenon of inbreeding or isolation in the population," said Yang Xuyu, head of the wildlife conservation office in Sichuan's forestry department.

The creation of the 14 corridors has improved data collection on the animals and the management of the species, Yang said.

Experts say wild pandas are rare and elusive in the wild environment, and it is hard to follow their habits. "To get to see the animal in the wild, you sometimes need luck and patience," said another staff member of the wildlife conservation office.

To complete their task, research team members traveled to virgin forests and places where wild pandas come and go.

"We have been to all the panda reserves (in the country)," said Yang Zhisong, a member of the research team.

Hu Jinchu, an expert on giant panda research, said that wild pandas were so hard to find, success couldn't come based on deductions made from observing captive-bred ones.

Because of the various differences in living environments and habits between wild and captive pandas, the research team had to do the hard work of tramping through endless miles of forests and mountains on their quest, Hu said.

The result, which has been the successful development of panda-breeding technology, has been gratifying, he added.

"The final target for us (was)... to revitalize the panda's population." Scientists say the research has laid the solid scientific foundation for the protection of the habitat of wild giant pandas in China.

They added that it has also provided invaluable guidelines for returning pandas to natural areas.

To put the research into practice, local Sichuan authorities have also undertaken other action.

The Liziping Nature Reserve in Ya'an is the only pandabreeding facility in China using this groundbreaking research to return the animals to nature.

The reserve has an area of 47,885 hectares and is currently home to a relatively sparse number of different species.

As a result, experts say, it has the capacity to accommodate many more wild animals, including pandas.

To date, one female panda has been returned to nature and given birth to cubs there, and another wild panda has also appeared in the nature reserve.

The challenge is demanding and its management should be thoroughly conversant with such areas as breeding techniques for cubs, said Zhang, the research team's head.

The research also showed that the survival rate of panda cubs could be increased by human intervention, thereby increasing panda numbers and promoting the renewal of the population, Zhang added.