CHENGDU, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Luxin was abducted after collapsing from hunger and sickness along a country road in Luding County, Sichuan Province. The lady panda has never returned home.
Six years after being taken, Luxin is now a mother far from the mountains where she grew up, raising a healthy cub along with her mate. Her ability to adapt to life in the new environment is being hailed as an innovation among national efforts to rekindle the population of the endangered species.
"I guess Luxin is happy with her new life," said Huang Yan Nike Air Vapormax 2018 Soldes , deputy chief engineer at the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda (CCRCGP), which perpetrated Luxin's unexpected move in March 2009.
"This is our first success in increasing gene diversity of small isolated panda communities by introducing outsiders," he said, emphasizing the importance of gene diversity to the survival of a species.
Luxin was five when she was spotted in distress by a rural passerby, who informed the CCRCGP. Rescuers placed her carefully into a cage and transported her to a research base in Ya'an.
Veterinarians said Luxin suffered from severe dehydration caused by infection of the digestive tract. After her recovery, the wild panda was relocated to Liziping Nature Reserve in Xiaoxiangling Mountains, 100 km away from her home in Qionglai Mountains.
Habitat loss and fragmentation have separated panda groups in nature. Huang said China has at least 30 isolated groups each with a small population of less than 50 pandas.
Pandas in such small communities have limited mating options Nike Air VaporMax CS Soldes , thus have a high possibility of inbreeding. It may lead to birth defects and, even worse, death of newborns.
As a panda in her reproductive prime, Luxin was assigned a tough job to find a mate among unacquainted guys in the 30-wild panda community in Xiaoxiangling Mountains.
"Without help, they may go extinct after a century," said Huang Feng, chief of the reserve's management office.
Luxin is one of the first to be relocated for such purposes. Her success or failure in finding acceptance in the group and mothering a kid is a tipping point for Huang's research.
The task Nike Air VaporMax Off White Soldes , however, is so dangerous and might result in deaths. In 2006, five-year-old male Xiangxiang became China's first captive-bred panda released to the wild, but was found dead one year later after fighting with aboriginal residents over food and territory.
Luxin might face the same fate, in addition to having to adapt to a different type of bamboo to eat, new ways of inter-personal communication and a changed local climate.
"She was chosen because females are usually more easily accepted by fellow pandas, while males are often seen as new threats Nike Epic React Soldes ," Huang said.
A sensing device, or an ID chip, was implanted under her skin and a GPS collar was put around her neck. With a bit homesickness, fear to the unknown but barely a look back, Luxin disappeared into the bamboo in late April 2009.
Up to 12 researchers have kept a watchful eye on her with the help of radio positioning tools and infrared monitoring cameras since the day she was released.
It's best that human contact is kept to a minimum, but the collar was abandoned by Luxin, for unknown reasons Nike Air Max Flair Soldes , several months later.
Huge efforts went into recovering the data. Thanks to the sensing chip, they distinguished Luxin from the pack of pandas and replaced the collar.
One year later, the researchers went to check on her health, attempting to re-capture her by placing familiar bamboo dishes in a cage.
When they checked on the cage, they found Luxin had been captured but managed to dig a hole into the ground