National Geographic
31 October, 2015
A keeper wears a panda suit in the hope of keeping bears about to be released into the wild as free as possible from human contact, at the wild-training center in Wolong reserve, Sichuan, China.
Once endangered, the giant panda is now considered vulnerable, meaning at lower risk of extinction. China’s efforts to eliminate poaching and to protect the panda’s habitat played a large role in increasing numbers. Two-thirds of the world’s wild pandas live in nature reserves in the bamboo-rich forests above the Sichuan Basin. The original decline of the species was attributed in part to the disappearance of bamboo, the panda’s principle food, as forests were converted to farmland. China’s restoration of the animal’s habitat has led to an increase in geographic range, and animals bred in captivity are now being reintroduced to the wild. Pandas living in captivity need to undergo training to learn how to cope in the wild. The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda oversees three panda bases in Sichuan, dedicated to reintroducing the bears to nature: Bifengxia, Dujiangyan and Wolong.
Ami Vitale
Ami Vitale is a photographer, writer and filmmaker currently based in Montana. She is an Ambassador for Nikon and a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine. ...
