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Eighteen captive-bred giant panda weanlings began a long transition on Saturday for a possible life in the wild in southwest China.
The six-month-old pandas were moved in baby carriers to their new home at a 2,000-square-meter garden at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan Province, where they will live together for half a year. Then, the cubs will be separated for further training and selection for an experimental program to release captive-bred pandas to the wild.
It is their first time to live outdoors, where they will have to adapt to changing temperature and humidity and to group life, said Zhang Hemin, director of the center.
The center, however, will make individualized nursing plans for the panda cubs according to their own diets and physical condition, Zhang said.
Each of the 18 panda cubs also was given a name on Saturday, selected from nearly 100,000 names sent to the center from around the world.