The Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park is the core area of the Giant Panda National Park under construction and an important habitat for wild giant pandas. In order to strengthen the monitoring and management of the wild population of giant pandas as a national treasure and achieve the strictest protection under the national park system, the Wolong area took the lead in using DNA technology, established a household registration file for each wild giant panda, and through DNA analysis, counted the number of wild giant panda populations in the area, which has increased from 104 in the fourth national census of giant pandas to the latest 149.
The national treasure giant panda, in the zoo, is a round, lazy, slow and cute animal, and has also achieved unified management in captivity.
However, in Wolong, Sichuan, the original habitat of giant pandas, wild giant pandas that survive in the natural environment, they are good at climbing, wide range of activities, full of wildness, and hide in the dense forest of bamboo seas in the lofty mountains, it is difficult to find.
Li Sheng, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences of Peking University: Giant pandas live in such a primitive forest, and the very dense bamboo under the forest and some other bamboo species are the main food of giant pandas. In such a very shaded environment, it is actually very difficult to see the entity of a giant panda in the wild.
In addition, the giant panda's iconic black and white face, because of its low recognition, also brings great difficulty to individual recognition.
In this case, how to implement precise management and protection of giant pandas living in the wild? Following the application of traditional infrared cameras and upgraded high-tech technologies such as cat face recognition and wireless ultra-short-wave cameras to monitoring, DNA technology based on molecular biology has also been introduced. The samples that this technology needs to take are not the hair or blood we think, but the faeces of animals that can be sampled anywhere.
Li Sheng, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences of Peking University: We know that when the feces of a giant panda are excreted from the body, it is wrapped in some cells that fall off the surface of its intestine, and we can extract the DNA of the giant panda from these cells, and after molecular biology analysis, we can accurately identify the individuals of the giant panda. And from the molecular information, we can also extract more information, such as its gender, their mutual affinity, and infer the spread of the population based on individual identification. Wolong Nature Reserve is actually the first to systematically apply such a technology to regional population conservation and management in the entire panda zone.
In this way, the birth, old age, illness, death, family structure, and living conditions of the national treasure giant panda are fully grasped without them noticing. It is equivalent to establishing a household registration file for giant panda individuals with different DNA maps.
Shi Xiaogang, station manager of Mujiangping Conservation Station in Wolong Area of Giant Panda National Park: Through DNA filing, it is equivalent to giving all giant pandas a hukou, which giant pandas are in which areas? Which pandas are distributed in which areas? In addition, through DNA archiving, we can estimate and evaluate the future development status of the wild giant panda population in Wolong Nature Reserve, including the male-female ratio of giant pandas through DNA archiving, and assess the future development of wild giant pandas.
Animal fecal DNA analysis technology, because sample collection is relatively easy and economical, does not disturb animals, is currently an ideal way to investigate wildlife populations.
In order to be able to cover all individual giant pandas as much as possible, the researchers conducted a protracted sample collection and comparative analysis, and finally came up with the latest wild giant panda statistics in the Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park.
Shi Xiaogang, director of the Mujiangping Conservation Station in the Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park: The giant panda DNA collection work was carried out twice in the 10,622 square kilometers of the whole area, and through DNA analysis, there are currently 149 wild giant pandas distributed in the Wolong Nature Reserve.
Source: CCTV news client