Chinese state television showed a giant female panda named Hua Jiao being sent back into the wild in Sichuan, China on Thursday.
Hua Jiao, the 2-year-old female panda, is the fifth candidate in the country’s program to send artificially-bred giant pandas back to the wild. She was released at the 47,940-hectare Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian County.
The panda has just finished a two-year wilderness adaptation program at the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in Sichuan. During the training, she looked for food and water all by herself.
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Experts at the center gave her the last pre-release physical examination on Wednesday and said that she now has the ability to survive in the wild.
China began releasing captive-bred pandas into the wild in 2006. Two of the released pandas died. Meanwhile, monitoring data showed the other two are doing well.
Giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species. Fewer than 2,000 pandas currently live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan, and in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.
The panda, born in Wolong in 2013, has been trained over the last 28 months in preparation for being released into the wild.
Hua Jiao is the fourth giant panda of Wolong Base’s wild reintroduction programme to be released, according to CCTV.
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