Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve: Random Encounter of Wild Giant Pandas “Courting” from Treetop

On March 3rd, staff in the Tangjiahe zone of Giant Panda National Park witnessed a precious moment of a pair of giant pandas “dating” from treetop.

The Tangjiahe zone of the Giant Panda National Park is located within Qingchuan County of Guangyuan City of Sichuan Province. According to the personnel who saw and photographed this moment, at the time a giant panda was leisurely sunbathing on a branch, while another giant panda slowly climbed up the tree, then began to claw its own buttock as it approached the sunbathing panda, and subsequently rubbed itself against the tree trunk to shake the tree and attract the other panda’s attention.

Experts explain that the giant panda was using its circumanal glands to leave its scent. The giant panda on the left on the tree is a male, while the one on the right is a female, and the behavior described above is closely related to the giant panda’s mating season.

People have been able to capture pictures of giant pandas at the Motianling area in the Tangjiahe zone of the Giant Panda National Park for eight straight years. Among these records are the process of wild giant pandas searching for mates, or moments when they experienced rut or when they fight. This increasing number of videos and photos provides crucial information conducive to studying the reproductive behaviors of giant pandas in the world, and further cements the Tangjiahe area of Guangyuan City of Sichuan Province as an important habitat of the giant panda.

A member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2014 and a part of the first group of IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, Tangjiahe boasts the highest probability of encountering a rare and endangered animal in low altitude area worldwide. Tangjiahe is noted for its big elevation difference and diverse climate, which are reasons why the area is home to a wide range of animals and plants, including wild animals like giant panda, takin and Temminck’s tragopan. Infrared cameras deployed within the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve have recorded many proofs of Tangjiahe’s biodiversity, for instance, the 1,286 effective data collected by one infrared camera between March 29th and September 1st, 2021, which showed 17 species of wild animals.

Source: The Tangjiahe zone of Giant Panda National Park