Impacts of man-made provisioned food on learned cub behaviours of giant pandas in pre-release reintroduction training

Abstract

Reintroduction is a valuable tool for conserving threatened species, and pre-release training is widely considered to be crucial for successful soft-release. However, little is known about how behaviours of pre-released giant panda cubs are affected by their mothers being provided with man-made provisioned food versus mothers that naturally forage. In this study, we monitored two pairs of mother-cub giant panda pairs in Hetaoping, Wolong National Nature Reserve, China. One mother giant panda's diet was supplemented with man-made food and the other had entirely natural foraging conditions. We investigated differences in the cubs' learning ability about habitat selection, their feces abundance, and home range patterns during pre-release training and acclimatization between the two conditions. The results indicate that the cub whose mother had entirely natural food (CN) selected similar microhabitat to its mother (MN). The cub whose mother was supplemented with man-made food (CMF) differed from its mother (MMF) preferring microhabitats with higher proportions of canopy coverage and areas closer to shelter. Compared to natural feeding conditions, provisioning a giant panda mother with man-made food seemed to impact cub microhabitat selection, especially in variables describing the amount of canopy cover, proximity to water resources, and grass coverage. CMF showed no difference in preference between bamboo edge habitat and interior habitat, which differed from other pandas previously studied. Similar to her mother, the home range of CMF was significantly less than CN. Our study suggests that provisioning giant panda with man-made food may hinder behavioural development, such as microhabitat and home range selection, of giant panda cubs during the acclimatization period. We recommend lessening human intervention as much as possible for future pre-release reintroduction training. Anthropogenic interference should be limited as much as possible in pre-release reintroduction training programs and managers should strive to provide conditions similar to those found in the species' natural range in order to provide the highest probability of success for the reintroduced individual.