​Comeback critter: Giant panda

A two-year-old giant panda sniffs the air and cautiously steps out from a crate onto the grass in China’s Liziping Nature Reserve. Named Zhang Xiang (pronounced JAHNG shang), or “thoughtful one” in Mandarin (a Chinese language), the young panda is the first ever captive-born female panda to be released into the wild. If she can make it on her own in this forest reserve, she’ll prove her entire species might be able to thrive too. 

Panda problems

Giant pandas once roamed throughout the cool mountainous forests of China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. But as the human population grew, hunting and logging took a toll on the panda population. Soon they were living on roughly one percent of their former range. 

When the World Wildlife Fund completed the first count of wild pandas in 1977, they found evidence of 2,459 pandas; when they finished another count 11 years later, that number had been cut in half. The giant panda population was decreasing—fast. “Humans caused the problems for pandas,” says Suzanne Braden, the director of Pandas International, an organization that supports panda conservation. “So we have to fix our mistakes and bring them back.” 

National treasures

Recognizing the giant panda as an important species that was in danger of disappearing from their country, the Chinese government made it illegal to hunt pandas, began reserving more land for the animals, and charged tourists to watch keepers bottle feed, burp, and rock the cubs to sleep at breeding centers. That money helped fund conservation efforts. 

Meanwhile, throughout China, other cubs were prepared for life in the wild. When keepers at breeding centers needed to check on a cub, they dressed up in black-and-white costumes sprayed with panda urine so the young bears didn’t get used to people. 

Once a panda learned to hide from predators, climb trees, and find shelter, water, and food on its own, keepers considered them ready to survive in the wild. Since Zhang Xiang’s release in 2013, 11 giant pandas have been sent back into the wild from these centers. 

Parks for pandas

China’s new laws and efforts from the conservation centers have paid off. The most recent count of pandas in 2014 showed nearly 2,000 in the wild—a 17 percent increase from a count 10 years earlier. And conservationists have another reason to celebrate: The Chinese government is creating Giant Panda National Park, a protected area about three times the size of Yellowstone National Park that will connect 67 panda reserves. “If we give pandas the space they need, they’ll do the rest,” Braden says. 

In 2017, four years after her release, Zhang Xiang was definitely doing her part. Scientists spotted the healthy panda on a camera trap, living in a reserve next to Liziping. She had established her own territory, giving conservationists hope that these bears can thrive in the wild.