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Humans Dress As Pandas To Help Baby Pandas
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 6, 2010
Modified Dec 6, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 6, 2010
Modified Dec 6, 2010
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This is not a film still from a Charlie Kaufman panda film (Being Panda Malkovich?) or a panda plushie porno. It's totally real: Panda researchers in China dress as pandas when they reintroduce giant pandas into the wild after breeding them in captivity. They don't want the panda cubs—aww, panda cubs!—to see humans when they drop them off into the forest. It's so bizarre and so beautiful and so sad at the same time! Seriously—from New Scientist:
Monitored by hidden cameras, the four-month-old cub will start out in a fenced-off area of forest, before moving into the wild. Pandas are notoriously difficult to reintroduce, with the first attempt from Hetaoping failing after the male cub, Xiang Xiang, was found dead less than a year after reintroduction. He had fallen from a tree, presumed attacked by other pandas. This prompted a rethink of the programme and this is the first time since Xiang Xiang's failure that conservationists have attempted a reintroduction from captivity of this endangered species.
If researchers at the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center need an extra set of hands (paws?) to help reacclimate baby pandas into the wild, they could call on Sad Panda, which would make him happy, no? Or they could call another certain panda enthusiast from NYC.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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