6 pandas in China groomed for the wild
Former NBA star Yao Ming attends panda reintroduction project event
The Associated Press
Posted: Jan 11, 2012 6:58 AM ET
Last Updated: Jan 11, 2012 1:13 PM ET
A panda plays in Panda Valley natural reserve in Dujiangyan city, in southwestern China's Sichuan province, on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Related
External Links
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
Six pandas bred in captivity wandered into an enclosed nature preserve in their native central China on Wednesday, a step toward eventually being reintroduced to the wild.
Researchers hope the captive-born pandas will be weaned from dependency on humans in the coming years and learn to forage, mate and fend for themselves.
Success in the reintroduction project would potentially help save the endangered giant panda. An estimated 1,600 live in the wild, their numbers dwindling from poaching and encroaching development. More than 300 pandas are in captivity in China, which funds breeding programs.
The pandas seemed tentative upon their release. They later ambled about, eating bamboo in their new home, a 20-hectare controlled habitat called Panda Valley in the forested hills of Sichuan province, where pandas are native.
Retired NBA star and conservation advocate Yao Ming holds a panda during a ceremony for the release of six of the animals in Panda Valley natural reserve in Dujiangyan city, in southwestern China's Sichuan province, on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
The newly released pandas are between the ages of two and four years old, and were selected for their health, behaviour and genes from among 108 pandas at the Chengdu Panda Base, a breeding centre in the provincial capital.
In a sign of the hopes for the project's success, retired NBA star and conservation advocate Yao Ming attended a ceremony for the release of the six pandas.
"I think it is most important to keep a balance between modern living and nature. We have been talking about it for many years, but it is never an easy thing to do," Yao told reporters afterward.
The $4.75-million US habitat is the first phase of the project, which will be expanded in area and which aims to hold 30 pandas at a time and release 100 of them into the wild over 50 years.
Some environmentalists question the project, given the difficulties captive-bred animals have surviving in the wild.
Another panda project started in 2003 suffered a setback when Xiang Xiang, a male panda trained for three years, was found dead in 2007 a year after he was released into the Woolong Nature Reserve.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Canadian Pacific strikers face back-to-work legislation
- Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is prepared to end the Canadian Pacific Railway strike if necessary, after both CP and the union rejected a proposal for voluntary arbitration by the government-appointed negotiator on Sunday. Raitt says she is "extremely disappointed." more »
- Syrian regime denies role in Houla massacre
- The UN Security Council condemned the Syrian regime at an emergency meeting Sunday, holding president Bashar al-Assad's military responsible for the massacre of more than 100 people, dozens of whom were children younger than 10 years old. more »
- Ryder Hesjedal wins prestigious Giro d'Italia
- Victoria native Ryder Hesjedal has become the first Canadian to win one of the cycling world's three Grand Tour events, wrapping up the 2012 Giro d'Italia with an excellent performance in the final stage in Milan. more »
- Neighbour may have helped find missing kids in Mexico
- Two Winnipeg children who had been missing for nearly four years were found in Mexico after a man raised concerns about his neighbour, according to a private investigator. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- South Africa, Australia to share world's largest telescope
- South Africa and Australia will jointly host the Square Kilometre Array, which promises to be the world's largest telescope, the international consortium in charge of the project said Friday. more »
- Bonavista, N.L., 'coyote' was really wolf, tests confirm
- Wolves have not been seen in Newfoundland since around 1930 and were believed to have been hunted to extinction on the island, but genetic tests have confirmed that an 82-pound animal shot on the Bonavista Peninsula in March was, in fact, a wolf. more »
- Once-rare argus butterfly thriving thanks to climate change
- Global warming is threatening the existence of many species, such as the giant polar bear, but in the case of Britain's brown argus butterfly, it took a species in trouble and made it thrive. more »
- Yahoo scraps digital magazine designed for iPad
- Yahoo has killed Livestand, a tablet magazine, just six months after its debut on the iPad. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Government to shut down unique fresh water research area May. 25, 2012 12:31 PM The Experimental Lakes Area research facility in Northern Ontario is being closed down after 44 years of providing invaluable data to scientists in Canada and internationally, a decision that has stunned researchers and environmental groups.
Quirks & Quarks
- May 26: Before the Lights Go Out May. 25, 2012 4:15 PM A new book, "Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us", suggests that the unpredictable, unplanned, ad-hoc way our energy use developed in the past will shape our energy future.
Latest Features
- Seniors float above Montreal's Quartier Latin
- Accused in blast that killed Alberta mom handled her funds
- Remains found in bag on Cape Breton river ID'd
- Neighbour may have helped find missing kids in Mexico
- Quebec students and province to resume talks
- Lip-dub marriage proposal an internet hit
- Syrian regime denies role in Houla massacre
- B.C. NDP calls for unity in fighting coast guard closure
- Canadian Pacific strikers face back-to-work legislation
