Giant panda released into wild found in good shape

A female giant panda released into the wild three years ago was caught on camera in a natural reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, home to giant pandas, and found in good shape.

She appeared in front of an infrared camera for four consecutive days in a state-owned forest area in Longchi Town of the city of Dujiangyan.

According to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, a DNA test identified that the giant panda is Xiao Hetao, or Little Walnut, which was released by the center into the wild on Dec 27, 2018.

This is the first time that Xiao Hetao has been captured on video in the wild.

"We sampled its feces and did a fecal DNA typing for identification. We then compared it to Xiao Hetao's blood samples which we had earlier saved at the lab. It turned out to be a perfect match, so we identified that it is Xiao Hetao," said Qiao Maiju, a senior engineer with the center.

Based on the activity tracking by her GPS collar, combined with the images taken by the infrared camera, experts said that the "Little Walnut" is in good shape, and has fully adapted to the wild.

In 2003, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda launched a rewilding training and reintroduction program for captive-bred pandas.

Xiao Hetao, who has now grown into a strong panda out of a small subadult, was released under the program, which has strict requirements on the selection of reintroduction sites and pandas.

"First, we need to take into account the consanguinity of a cub before helping it return to nature. When it comes to reintroduction, we need to keep the panda away from the place where it had been set free so as to avoid inbreeding and outbreeding depression. Moreover, the mother's health status, genetic inheritance disorders, her experience in the wild, and her ability to raise cubs in the wild, can all influence her cubs and the effect of the rewilding training on the cubs," said Wu Daifu, head of the Hetaoping panda base in Wolong of the center.

Xiao Hetao was born at the Hetaoping panda base on July 30, 2016.

After a comprehensive evaluation, Xiao Hetao would be raised by its mother and begin the first stage of rewilding training upon her birth.

"Before she was one year old, Xiao Hetao spent most of time with her mother. As it was a critical period for her behavioral development and growth, we trained her to develop some basic survival skills," said Wu.

On Dec. 15, 2017, Xiao Hetao stepped into the second stage of rewilding training together with her mother, and started the second stage of training for one year.

"During this period, she developed her new eating habits -- living on both bamboos and breast milk. As the ecological environment she lived in at the first stage could not meet her need for growth, the panda started the second stage (in the training site) where she needed to learn to forage on its own, find shelters and recognize predators," said Wu.

Thus far, nine giant pandas released by the center survived in nature.