China News Service, Chengdu, December 28th (Wang Liwen, He Luheng, Anyuan) Reintroduction into the wild is an important means of rejuvenating and rebuilding wild populations, and is of great significance to threatened and endangered species.
As early as 2001, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda took the lead in launching the reintroduction of giant pandas into the wild.
Up to now, 11 captive giant pandas in China have been released into the wild, living in Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Reserve and other small populations in the wild.
The test found that the reintroduced giant pandas are in good condition.
How will the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda carry out the work of reintroducing giant pandas into the wild on the basis of the world's largest captive giant panda population with the most reasonable genetic structure and the most vitality?
What are the conditions for reintroduction of giant pandas into the wild?
How to track and monitor the released giant pandas?
Focusing on the above issues, Li Desheng, deputy director and chief expert of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, accepted an exclusive interview with Chinanews.com to explain this.
How to make giant pandas have the ability to survive in the wild?
According to Li Desheng, the results of the fourth national giant panda survey show that through a series of protection measures, the living conditions of wild giant pandas are getting better and better, and there are about 18 populations with less than 30 populations.
But at the same time, the habitats of giant panda populations in the wild are severely fragmented, requiring more protection measures.
"How to make giant pandas have the ability to survive in the wild? This is the biggest difficulty in reintroducing giant pandas into the wild." Summarizing his experience in recent years, Li Desheng found that some giant pandas lack the ability to recognize companions and avoid natural enemies in the process of living in the wild without their breeders. .
The giant panda "Tao Tao" was released.
Photo courtesy of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda
In order to solve this problem, in recent years, important changes have taken place in the training methods of reintroduction into the wild.
Li Desheng introduced that the center used the "mother and cub training" to allow the giant panda "Tao Tao" to learn survival skills from his mother since he was born, and he has no human consciousness since he was a child.
When the breeders and scientific researchers come into contact with "Tao Tao", they will also wear camouflage clothes with the smell of giant pandas such as mother's feces.
Through the evaluation of cubs at different growth and development stages by scientific researchers, the "mother and cub training" is very effective.
What conditions need to be met before they can be released into the wild?
Li Desheng pointed out that the giant panda's ability to select "habitat" (the ecological environment on which to live) is one of the important indicators.
In the wild, giant pandas need to be familiar with the amount of bamboo in the "habitat", learn to choose the "habitat" for food, and know when to go and where to eat which type of bamboo.
It is also necessary to form the ability to judge the surrounding environment, learn to choose a suitable place to rest, and how to climb trees to escape the fastest when encountering danger.
At the same time, parasite assessment is also an important indicator.
Parasitic infections in giant pandas vary greatly between wild and captive environments.
"In a captive environment, we often feed deworming drugs to giant pandas, and we also use feces to detect the number of eggs ovulated. But in the wild, even if they are infected, we can't do deworming." Therefore, parasite assessment before release is also important. It is very important that only experts in various fields believe that this giant panda has met the conditions for reintroduction, will they choose a suitable endangered small population, and let the giant panda continue to grow in it until it can truly integrate into the life of the population.
Regarding the regular tracking of the reintroduced giant pandas, Li Desheng introduced that the center can realize the dual positioning of GPS and Beidou positioning system according to different regions, and track the activities of giant pandas in the wild.
"As long as there is a satellite signal, we can track the giant panda's movement route in recent days or even longer."
What impact does the construction of the Giant Panda National Park have on the reintroduction into the wild?
Li Desheng said that the Giant Panda National Park has provided better conditions for the return of giant pandas through measures such as the construction of core protected areas and general control areas.
A more comprehensive and complete assessment and management system is very important to the protection of giant pandas. It is conducive to the positive interaction between grassroots protection and the community, and has a good role in promoting the work of giant panda reintroduction, scientific research and popular science education.
"After the completion of the Giant Panda National Park, it has truly realized the transformation of green water and green mountains into mountains of gold and silver, promoting development through protection, and promoting protection during development."
Li Desheng pointed out that in the next step, the center plans to build a new rewilding training circle in the Giant Panda National Park, and adopt on-site training and release in batches to better carry out rewilding training.
"It is hoped that through the joint efforts of all parties, more giant pandas will return to their natural homes." (End)