Staff dress up as pandas to help baby adjust to the wild

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Keepers at Wolong Panda Reserve in China dress up in pandas to help a baby panda adapt to the wild
Keepers at Wolong Panda Reserve in China dress up in pandas to help a baby panda adapt to the wild

Rex

Dressing up in a silly outfit and soaking yourself in panda urine and faeces is all part of a day's work for staff a the Wolong Panda Reserve in China. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE VIDEO.

These are the lengths they are going to in order to help a captive baby panda readjust to the wild.

The cub, who has never seen a human face, was born in 2010 at the reserve in Sichuan Province.

Keepers have always dressed up in panda suits and covered themselves in natural panda scent when around him, in the hope that he will adapt more easily to the wild.

This video shows the staff enticing the cub, named Tao Tao, into a special hideout as part of his reintroduction into the wild.

They may look silly, but it's a serious mission: according to the World Wildlife Fund, giant pandas are among the most threatened animals in the world and are on the verge of extinction, chiefly because their habitat is under threat from logging.



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