China to tattoo pandas before releasing them into the wild

BEIJING (AP): China's tiny population of park-bred pandas will all be discreetly tattooed before being released into bamboo forests to integrate with the larger wild panda community, an official said Monday.

Over the next two years, some 200 captive-born pandas will be tattooed with identification numbers inside their mouths to help scientists track their movements when they are eventually released into the wild, said Huang Xiangming, a researcher with the Chengdu Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan province.

They will receive a local anesthetic before a 3-centimeter (1-inch) numeric identification tag is permanently inked on their mouths, Huang said.

The pandas will also have a tracking chip inserted under their neck fur and a DNA profile will be developed based on hair or blood samples, he said.

There are about 1,600 wild pandas in the mountain forests of central China -- the only place in the world they are found -- and more than 180 live in captivity.