How hard have scientists tried to "sneak a peek" at those fat black and white guys?

On March 18, 1978, the Wolong Nature Reserve, the "Hometown of Pandas", was established.

More than 150 years ago, the giant panda was discovered and named in Sichuan. This rare creature hidden in the mountains quickly became one of the most beloved animals in the world. In the 1970s, systematic scientific research on giant pandas took root in Wolong Nature Reserve. This area of ​​200,000 hectares is famous for its achievements in giant panda protection, and its geographical location is prominently marked on the world map. The giant panda has become the most representative Chinese symbol and a symbol of global nature conservation, and Wolong has been promoted to a top giant panda scientific research and protection base, attracting the attention of biologists around the world.

On March 18, 1978, the Field Ecological Observation Station, marking a new era in giant panda protection, was officially established in Wolong, Sichuan. It became the starting point for Chinese and foreign scientists to work together to explore the mysteries of giant pandas.

Giant pandas running to the camp of the reserve

Conservation research, tracking and monitoring giant pandas

Wolong, located in the heart of the Qionglai Mountains, is the deepest canyon in the Hengduan Mountains and one of the most difficult areas for field research in my country. In March 1978, a team of giant panda conservation pioneers led by Hu Jinchu, a Chinese giant panda research expert, selected an open and water-friendly location at an altitude of more than 2,500 meters on Niutou Mountain, where cold-arrow bamboo and walking stick bamboo grow. They built a simple wooden shed and dug 51 steps leading to the camp, which was named "May 1st Shed".

The research team went through wind, frost, rain and snow, crossed the waist-deep Xihe River, faced the challenges of getting lost and food shortages, and endured severe cold and snake and insect infestations. After eight years of hard work, they established seven observation routes in a vast area of ​​35 square kilometers, used radio telemetry technology to conduct in-depth tracking of the activities of wild giant pandas, and accumulated a large amount of valuable first-hand biological data.

By measuring the pandas' footprints and feces, counting the amount of bamboo they eat, and collecting and analyzing fecal samples, they have mastered the status of the wild panda population and habitat information. At the same time, radio collar positioning technology provides key data for revealing the pandas' feeding, estrus, courtship, reproduction and pathological behavior habits.

This study marks the first systematic basic research into multiple areas including giant panda biology, ecology, population structure and reproduction. Its findings have had a profound impact internationally and established Wolong’s core position in the conservation, management and scientific research of giant pandas and their habitats.

Infrared camera captures first-ever giant panda twins in the wild

Overcoming three difficulties and owning the largest number of captive pandas in the world

In 1980, the Chinese government, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, established the "China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda" in the Wolong Nature Reserve, with the aim of increasing the giant panda population through ex situ conservation measures. It also carried out a series of artificial breeding and rewilding training in the hope of eventually releasing artificially bred giant pandas safely back into the wild and ensuring the reproduction of this rare species.

In the 1990s, Zhang Hemin, then deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, led a highly skilled and innovative scientific research team, overcame numerous challenges, and successfully broke through the three major global problems in the field of captive giant panda breeding: difficulty in estrus, difficulty in mating and conception, and difficulty in cub survival. They not only innovated the artificial breeding technology of giant pandas, but also built a systematic breeding theory system, and then established the world's largest and most rationally structured captive population of giant pandas, achieving self-sustaining and sustainable development of the captive population. Today, the research center welcomes many newborn giant panda cubs every year, injecting new vitality into the giant panda protection cause.

However, captive breeding is only one part of the strategy to protect giant pandas. The ultimate goal is to achieve the return of giant pandas to the wild. To this end, Wolong Nature Reserve has been carrying out the giant panda field training program for more than ten years, successfully achieving the historic leap of giant pandas from the wild to captivity and then from captivity back to nature. Among them, pandas such as "Tao Tao" and "Zhang Xiang" are examples of successful return to the forest. Releasing artificially bred giant pandas into the wild can not only replenish the number of wild populations, but also enhance the genetic diversity of the population. This is one of the key goals of the domestication and breeding of endangered wild animals and the most effective means to ensure the long-term survival of small populations.

Dynamic monitoring to promote biodiversity conservation research

Wolong, located in the complex area of ​​Hengduan Mountains, has avoided the invasion of glaciers due to its terrain advantages and has become a well-known refuge for animals and plants. As a corridor for biological exchanges between the north and the south, it is listed as one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. The Wolong area has diverse vegetation and a wide variety of animals and plants. It is known as a precious broad-spectrum gene bank and a natural zoo. Thanks to the "umbrella protection effect" of giant pandas, many species here have been effectively protected.

For more than 40 years, the guardians of the Wolong Nature Reserve have been professionally trained, showing tenacity and professionalism, and have been performing patrol and scientific research tasks in the wild for more than 200 days each year. At present, more than 100 field patrol members have participated in the work of 98 giant panda monitoring routes, equipped with modern equipment such as far-infrared cameras and GPS positioning systems, and have improved the giant panda habitat monitoring system, established a wild giant panda individual identification system and database based on DNA information, and achieved refined management of wild giant pandas.

The first film photo of a giant panda taken with an infrared camera in 2005

According to the fourth field survey of giant pandas, Wolong has 138 wild giant pandas, accounting for about 10% of the total number in China. Since 2018, a new round of large-scale surveys has been launched, covering 1,032 square kilometers of potential and actual habitats of giant pandas, with a survey grid set up every 2 square kilometers, and a total of 183 fresh fecal samples from wild giant pandas (within 10 days) have been collected.

In addition, Wolong Nature Reserve is the first nature reserve to conduct DNA individual identification and gender archiving of fresh feces of wild giant pandas in the entire region. Experts pointed out that these feces and other DNA extraction materials can not only enrich the DNA archives of wild giant pandas in Wolong, but also realize individual identification through molecular level analysis, track the changes in the activity range of the same giant panda in different seasons and years, so as to understand the population diffusion mechanism and scientifically delineate the nesting range.

Reference sources: China Green Times, Sichuan Forestry and Grassland Bureau official website, Guangming Daily