Giant Panda news: Captive breeding a start, but species must be saved in the wild

I was interviewed on CTV’s Canada AM this morning on the panda breeding news.  Panda females tend to give birth to twins about half the time, but usually only one of the young is nurtured.  Sad as it may seem, this is a common feature in nature, where additional young are somewhat of an insurance policy, in case the first-fed succumbs to disease, predation or other loss.
But scientists and captive-breeding experts have “fooled” mother pandas into rearing both of their twins, by frequently switching them over the course of the day, when the mother is distracted.  Apparently, Mom may think she’s only rearing one, but two can survive using this clever method.
This news is welcome in the sense that the more we learn about rather obscure and hard-to-find rare pandas the better.  Congratulations to the expert team involved.

Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca); Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, China (c) Susan A. Mainka/WWF-Canon
It has been suggested that such a boost in captive rearing of Giant Pandas will allow reintroduction to the wild and help save this endangered species.  Quite possibly so, though this will be very expensive, long-term, rather high risk and therefore arguably of lower priority than other proven strategies to save pandas.
Don’t get me wrong.  WWF supports captive-breeding of endangered species for reintroduction to the wild, especially when the animals are all but gone in nature and yet there is still habitat for them to thrive, if reintroduced.  A perfect example of this has been the WWF-supported reintroduction of the Black-footed Ferret to the prairies of the U.S., Mexico and most recently Canada.  This prairie weasel had been extirpated (wiped-out) from the wild since the 1930s, until a small population was discovered in Wyoming in 1981 and captive-bred in zoos and other facilities for successful reintroductions.
In the case of the Giant Panda, some 1,600 animals still exist in nature in China, about 40% more than were known in the 1990s.  Though not large in number, Giant Pandas have always been rare, living largely alone in isolated high-altitude bamboo forests.  So the easiest, least-expensive and most likely-to-succeed conservation strategies for Giant Pandas are:  protect their bamboo forests as secure reserves, increase anti-poaching patrols, reduce illegal logging and clearing of their habitat, establish wildlife corridors among their mountain-top reserves to connect them for occasional natural population exchange, train and equip more wildlife personnel, and boost research into the ecological needs of Giant Pandas in the wild.
WWF was the first conservation organization to be invited by the Chinese government, in 1980, to assist with environmental work in China, in this case on the endangered symbol of China and of WWF.  We have worked there ever since, on Giant Pandas and many other species, habitats and issues.
Again, let me stress, captive-breeding has its place as a last-ditch conservation strategy, when protection in the wilds of nature has failed.  Captive breeding of the Giant Pandas, and the clever rearing of twins, are truly wonders to appreciate.  But the best, cheapest, most effective and most urgent steps to save Giant Pandas are taken in their bamboo forest habitats.