Seeing it disappearing into the bamboo forest, Liu Bin, the 28-year-old keeper, had tears in his eyes. "Xiang Xiang is just like my child, who has grown up and will leave the family to live a life independently," said Liu, "I hate to part with Xiang Xiang but I hope it can survive on its own and will not forget me."
Born in 2001, Xiang Xiang, whose mother was ar?ificially inseminated, has spent the last three years in a 200,000-square-metre wildness training compound. With three years’ training, Xiang Xiang has learned how to build a den, forage for food and mark its territory, and it has also developed defensive skills by howling and biting just as a wild giant panda would do, said Zhang Hemin, head of the China giant panda protection centre here.
Experts from the centre performed Xiang Xiang’s last physical check-up and gave it a number of inoculations, before releasing. Xiang Xiang has been released at the height of the bamboo shoot season, making it easier for it to find food, informed Zhang. "The release of Xiang Xiang marks a significant change in ways of saving the endangered species by training the pandas to live in the wild before releasing them, which would top the agenda of China’s efforts to that effect," said Zhao Xuemin, deputy head of the State Forestry Administration.
Chinese scientists have given priority to artificial breeding and protection of the hairy creatures before releasing them to nature, Zhao said, adding that the release also marks the start of China’s efforts to carry out wildness training on other endangered species. According to Zhao, China also plans to release Chinese alligators, David deer, wild horses and red ibis, among others, into the wild after wildness training.