panda reintroduction centre
The next few weeks are important times for pandas in China. not only is the world’s first purpose built panda reintroduction centre about to open but on 11th January China will be releasing 6 captive bred pandas back into the wild.
The Dujiangyan Field Research Center for Giant Pandas will be open to accept it’s first pandas at the end of this month. The new reintroduction centre, located in Majiagou, Yutang Town, will be able to house between 30 and 40 giant pandas and prepare them for release back into the wild.
The £20 million centre has 3 main areas – the experimentation area where newly arrived pandas are introduced. They then move through to the next stage – the semi-wild re-introduction area before moving into a more natural re-introduction area. Finally the pandas will be released fully into the wild.
The centre will become an important part of China’s aim to re-wild it’s 108 captive bred pandas back into the wild over the coming decades. Ensuring that captive bred pandas are adequately trained for the wild is essential for the plan to work.
Previous releases of captive bred panda has ended in tragedy. In 2006 Xiang Xiang was released into the wild. But it died 1 year later after falling from a tree and being attacked by other pandas.
On the 11th January 6 pandas from the Chengdu Panda Base will be released into the wild. They are currently undergoing intensive training on how to live in the wild, including how to build their own homes.
One of the pandas due for release next month is Gong Zai. His name means boy with martial arts skills and he achived world wide fame as being the panda which inspired the creation of Po in the movie Kung Fu Panda.
His five companions for his biggest adventure of going to live in the wild are: Xingrong, Xingya, Yingying, Zhizhi and Qiqi. All the pandas are aged between 2 and 4 years old as this is a good age for them to be adaptable for new surroundings.
External sites:
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
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