China has introduced six giant pandas into a "semi-wild" environment on Wednesday. This is claimed to be one of the most ambitious attempts so far to build up the endangered population with captive-bred bears.
Celebrities including retired basketball star Yao Ming attended the ceremony in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, to mark the relocation of the bears.
Yao Ming said, "I think the most important thing is to keep the balance between humans and nature. We have been talking about it for many years but it is never an easy thing to do. It is the thousand-year-old central thinking in the Chinese Confucian culture."
Chengdu's researchers hope a phased approach will bring greater success. The six giant bears will be set loose for "training" in a controlled rehabilitation area of 20 hectares in Dujiangyan's "Panda Valley" that is still under development.
The animals have been selected according to their health, behaviour and genetic diversity from the 108 pandas at the Chengdu Panda Base.
They are all adolescents - ages two-to-four - a time when scientists hope they will be strong enough to fend for themselves, but still young enough to adapt.
Those who respond well to foraging and other skill training will eventually be released into the nature reserve.
It is hoped that as they mature and breed, they will produce offspring fully accustomed to living in the wild.
Once the 300 million yuan Dujiangyan facility is completed, it is expected to host more than 30 pandas at a time.
The goal is to release 100 animals into the wild over the next 50 years. The researchers involved say patience will be one of the biggest keys.

籃球明星姚明等社會名流和官員參加在四川都江堰舉行的放歸儀式，首批放歸的6只大熊貓將被放到正在建設(shè)中的都江堰“熊貓谷”的受控野化區(qū)接受“訓(xùn)練”。熊貓研究人員說，有足夠的空間進(jìn)行野外訓(xùn)練，這些大熊貓是根據(jù)健康狀況、行為表現(xiàn)和遺傳多樣性，從成都大熊貓基地的108 只大熊貓中選出來的。此次放歸被譽(yù)為預(yù)計將持續(xù)50年的熊貓野外放歸項目的里程碑。
據(jù)稱，首批放歸的大熊貓屬于亞成體，相當(dāng)于人類少兒期?？茖W(xué)家認(rèn)為，此時的大熊貓足夠強(qiáng)壯，能夠保護(hù)自己，同時仍有較強(qiáng)的適應(yīng)能力。在覓食和其他訓(xùn)練中表現(xiàn)最好的大熊貓最終將被放歸自然保護(hù)區(qū)。人們希望，隨著這些大熊貓的成熟，它們將繁殖出完全適應(yīng)野外生活的后代。