Success in the wild giant panda chase

ON WEDNESDAY, a wild giant panda was reportedly photographed by an infrared camera in the Jiuding Mountain Nature Reserve of Deyang, Sichuan province. That's the first photo taken of a wild giant panda in that protected area since it was founded in 1999. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Before the photo was taken, people thought there were giant pandas inside the Jiuding Mountain Nature Reserve because their droppings had been found there. However, the last time giant panda feces were found in the reserve was 19 years ago.

A manager of the nature reserve even jokingly said that he kept the ordure from 2000 as it was something very precious, being the only evidence that giant pandas live there. Now he can finally throw it away.

Some might not realize the importance of wild giant pandas compared with those inside the breeding centers. The ultimate purpose of animal protection is to let them live independently in the wild, breed there and become part of the local ecological chain, and China has always been rendering efforts toward that goal. Since 2006, China has released 11 reared pandas into the wild and it plans to release another five pairs soon.

However, compared with their counterparts in the wild, housed protected animals generally lack the necessary skills to live in the wild. Being raised in air-conditioned rooms and fed with carefully designed meals every day, they are too mollycoddled to survive in the wild without the assistance of humans.

It would be much better for the survival of the species if there are more wild pandas living in the nature reserve, because they will be adapted to the conditions there.

The giant panda photographed on Jiuding Mountain shows the protected area has suitable conditions for pandas to live, and that the local staff have done their job well.

For other protected animals such as the South China Tiger, the problem is even more serious because their number is smaller. At the most, there are only about 100 South China Tigers living in zoos, all of which are descendents of six tigers. After generations of inbreeding, the majority of the tigers suffer from hereditary diseases such as a low birth rate.

Giant pandas in protection centers do not face this problem yet. However, the total number of giant pandas in the wild is still as low as 1,000, and even one more means a more diversified gene pool and more hope of preventing the same genetic fate befalling them.

A total of 102 infrared cameras are currently installed in the Jiuding Mountain Nature Reserve, and the data is scheduled to be collected and analyzed in the autumn.

(China Daily Global 05/10/2019 page11)