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Place archive

Liziping Nature Reserve

sanctuary Shimian, China

Liziping Nature Reserve is a protected area in Sichuan Province, China, used for panda rewilding and release programs.

Liziping Nature Reserve forms part of the in-situ conservation landscape for wild giant pandas, anchored by nature reserves and protected corridors within the broader panda habitat network.

How this page is organized

Start with the pandas, then move outward into the surrounding archive

This page gathers the residents linked to Liziping Nature Reserve, the key moments recorded here, nearby institutions, and the articles that add context.

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Resident archive

Pandas connected to this place

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The archive does not yet list pandas connected to Liziping Nature Reserve.

Recorded moments

Archive timeline at Liziping Nature Reserve

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2014
Nov 23

Xue Xue Found Dead 42 Days After Release

Xue Xue (雪雪, sb850) was found dead in the Dahongshan area of Liziping Reserve, only 42 days after her release. Post-mortem analysis suggested a pathogenic bacterial infection as the likely cause — the first rewilded panda to die from disease rather than physical trauma.

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2014
Oct 14

Xue Xue Released into the Wild

Xue Xue (雪雪, sb850), the fourth captive-born panda released to the wild, walked out of her transport cage at Liziping Nature Reserve. She weighed 53.4 kg and had completed two years of mother-rearing rewilding training under Si Xue.

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2013
Nov 6

Zhang Xiang Released into the Wild

Zhang Xiang (张想, sb826), the first captive-born female panda raised through mother-rearing rewilding training, was released into Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian County. This marked the first successful release of a female captive-born panda into the wild, following the earlier release of Tao Tao in 2012.

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In the library

Further reading on Liziping Nature Reserve

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Cover image for "The Ultimate Panda Documentary Guide: 50+ Films Every Panda Lover Needs to Watch"
Featured
Culture 📚 general

The Ultimate Panda Documentary Guide: 50+ Films Every Panda Lover Needs to Watch

A curated global guide to over 50 panda documentaries spanning seven decades, seven thematic categories, and ten countries — from Pan Wenshi's raw Qinling field recordings in the 1990s to the 2024 Korean theatrical release Goodbye, Grandpa. Every film is verified, reviewed, and linked to the real pandas, keepers, and breeding centers behind the footage.

documentary film guide +2
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Cover image for "Rewilding Pandas: From Captivity Back to the Deep Forest"
Featured
Culture 📚 general

Rewilding Pandas: From Captivity Back to the Deep Forest

The ultimate goal of panda conservation is not more pandas in cages — it is more pandas in forests. Since 2006, China has been training captive-born pandas for release into the wild through a program that requires keepers to wear panda suits, mothers to teach cubs survival skills without human contact, and released pandas to navigate a world their ancestors knew but they have never seen. This is the story of the rewilding program — its heartbreaking early failures, its hard-won successes, and the panda mothers and cubs who are slowly learning to be wild again.

2 pandas
rewilding release wild-training +2
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Cover image for "The International Studbook: How Big Data Prevents Panda Inbreeding"
Featured
Nature 🔬 advanced

The International Studbook: How Big Data Prevents Panda Inbreeding

Every captive giant panda on Earth is recorded in a single global database — the International Studbook — which tracks lineage, calculates genetic relatedness, and determines each year's breeding recommendations. This article explains how studbook managers use population genetics software to maintain 90% genetic diversity across 700 captive pandas, making the panda breeding program one of the most mathematically sophisticated conservation efforts in history.

1 panda
studbook genetics breeding +2
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World map

Where this place sits in the wider panda world

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Coordinates: 29.0200 N, 102.3500 E