More than a decade on from the Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese province’s giant panda population is holding up, with a little help from Hong Kong
- The local giant panda is classified as vulnerable by the WWF and conservation was greatly complicated by the 2008 quake
- The Hong Kong government helped with post-earthquake reconstruction in the Sichuan wildlife reserves, resulting in free visits for Hongkongers
In a restricted conservation area tucked away in Wolong in Sichuan province – known for being home to giant pandas classified by global conservation body WWF as vulnerable – researcher Yang Fan braces the snowy weather to strap an infrared camera to a tree trunk, and walks back and forth to make sure the angle is right.
Yang hopes to use the 100 or so infrared cameras installed in the Dengsheng conservation area on tranquil mountain Balangshan to track some of the 1,387 wild giant pandas and other precious animals such as snow leopards and sambar deer in the province. The data collected can help his team understand more about wildlife.
The 42-year-old guardian has only come across two pandas in the wild in his two decades in the job and he displays a picture he took in 2015 of a panda sleeping on a tree.
His caption read: “After patrolling here for so many years, I finally see a wild giant panda.”
Yang said his team also encountered another panda during a field trip a few years ago, and it was an encouragement to the team who had worked hard to protect the animals.