Question

Back to China! What is the most important "key" to the successful re-wilding of a giant panda cub: __________ Describe the "uniform" of the staff that cares for the giant panda cubs? ______________ How do the humans living in the valley below benefit from the reforested habitat of the rewilded giant pandas?

Answer 1

21 Chinese conservationists are dressing up in fluffy panda costumes as they help prepare captive-born cubs to live in the wild. They are anxious to ensure the endangered animals have as little contact with humans as possible So rather than being hand-reared as precious pandas often are, they are being brought up by their mothers in a piece of protected woodland. 20&22 Human-raised pandas have great difficulty surviving in the wild. Only two out of ten released bred in captivity and released since 1983 have survived, with six sent back to the breeding centre-due to dramatic weight loss, not adapting to their environment, or even being killed by wild pandas. At 'Panda Valley', Zhang 'Papa Panda' Hemin is focusing on training them to survive out there. Almost 150 cameras allow him to constantly monitor the panda equivalent of preschool as cubs learn how to pick the best bamboo, mothers chase off predators, and they learn to climb. At this stage it is important that there is no human contact at all, not even human odours. "Usually you put some panda urine and faeces on panda costumes for the workers to wear when they leave food for the pandas," says Zhang. This 'Big Brother' style observation ensures every aspect is known about the suitability of each individual panda to be released. The baby pandas then graduate to a wilder setting. Training pandas born in captivity to live in the wild takes about two years - and it's up to Papa Panda to decide when they are ready to live a wild life