Video: Great Pandas Back From the Brink of Extinction, but Challenges Remain
An aggressive breeding program in China has brought the giant pandas back from the brink of extinction. There has been a baby boom with 300 pandas now in captivity, due to artificial insemination. The goal of the program was to release pandas back in to the wild, but that program has been put on hold because it didn't work. There has not been one successful release of a giant panda into the wild.
The one five year old panda who was released was killed by other pandas, although he had been trained to survive in the woods. In captivity, the pandas quickly grow attached to humans and socialize with other pandas. In the wild, they are solitary animals and rather aggressive, according to researchers. The Chinese scientists are clearly frustrated at being able save the pandas from extinction, yet not being able to release them into their native
habitat successfully. Britain's Sky News reports:
