Pandas: The Journey Home

This is a story about connections between people,

between cultures,

even between animals.

For a determined panda expert like hou rong,

those connections can be full of surprises.

Hou rong is the director of research at the chengdu panda base

in China's sichuan province.

She's responsible for the country's largest population

of captive-born pandas.

These cubs are just two months old.

Too young to even crawl.

Hou rong and her colleagues used new techniques

that led to the birth of over 200 baby pandas.

She's known as the "panda mom."

I've dedicated my life to the conservation of giant pandas.

A healthy captive population can help save wild pandas

from extinction.

For such a famous animal,

very little is actually known about wild pandas.

Giant pandas are the oldest

and most endangered species of all living bears.

They once roamed across much of ancient China.

For thousands of years kingdoms and dynasties Rose and tumbled.

And people transformed the landscape

for their own use.

The loss of their habitat pushed pandas higher and higher into these mountains.

Today, there are fewer than 2,000 giant pandas in the wild.

Scattered in small groups and isolated from each other

by rugged terrain and human development.

The lack of genetic diversity

is an added danger to their long-term survival.

Hou rong hopes her cubs can help

increase the wild population and expand their gene pool.

They've been carefully bred

for a special mission, to be a panda force

in the battle against extinction.

Hou rong's dream is to start the next phase of her program

and release some of these cubs into the wild.

The cubs' mothers were also born at the panda base.

They don't have the experience to help them go wild.

So hou rong will look elsewhere for help.

Her search will lead her across the world

to the small American town of lyme, New Hampshire.

And the home of papa bear.

Yeah, what a good boy. What a good boy. Yeah.

Ben kilham takes in orphaned black bear cubs

and returns them to the wild.

Black bears are the most common of all bear species.

But each one has its own personality.

These little orphans are only ten weeks old.

You wanna climb out, you wanna come up and see me.

Hmm?

Yeah, that wasn't so hard, was it?

At this age, they sleep most of the day.

But when they're hungry, they turn into little monsters.

Ben and his family provide constant care and affection.

If you think having kids is hard, try raising three bears in your house.

Come on guys, let's go for a walk.

Once spring arrives,

the cubs move out of the house

and Ben takes them for long walks in the woods.

Come on, guys.

Let's go up the pond. Come on.

When I was a boy I had trouble learning in school.

As I grew up I realized I just had a different way of seeing the world.

I could read nature the way other people read books.

Do you wanna go for a swim?

Ben's method is simple.

Build trust,

then provide security

and opportunity for the cubs to explore.

I don't teach bears how to be bears.

The knowledge is already inside them.

Come on, let's go home.

Next summer, this little troupe will break up.

And the bears will be returned to the forests of new england.

Ben has successfully released over 150 bears.

Hou rong was introduced to Ben

by her friends at the global cause foundation.

She came to New Hampshire to see

if he and his black bears could help her pandas.

Hi.

Watch out, guys, watch out.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

By your experiments, which age is better to use this method?

Well, the younger ones are the only ones we can do the method with.

- Okay. - Of walking that would be comparable

to what we could do with pandas.

- Mmm-hmm. - And because all of your pandas,

they don't have the experience with their mothers either.

Yes. Yeah.

The best model for hou rong's pandas

is a bear named squirty.

Squirty was one of the first cubs I ever raised.

She was a tiny little thing.

But she had a big, bossy personality.

Ben brings hou rong to his study site to demonstrate

how the trust you develop with young bears

can last long after they go wild.

Squirty is a wild bear now.

She's 22 years old.

And has raised over 20 of her own cubs.

Hi, squirty.

Hi, squirty.

Yeah, good girl.

Squirty lets me put a tracking collar around her neck.

But I have fo be careful.

Ben and squirty have changed each other's lives.

He gave her the chance lo thrive and in return, she's been his guide

into the world of wild black bears.

Ben's experience with squirty

guided his work with all the bears that followed.

Oh, wow. You gonna let us come in? Huh?

- Hi, guys. - Hi, guys.

The cubs are comfortable around Ben.

But not strangers.

Hi, there. Hi, there. Can I play hide-and-seek with you?

Hmm?

Hi, there.

Hi, there.

Hi, there. Yeah.

What a pretty girl. What a pretty girl.

Hi, guys, I remember all you guys.

Hello.

I was touched by Ben ahd his love for the bears.

They accept him like he's also a bear.

That's a bluff charge, but it's not a really highly emotional bluff charge.

The intensity of the bluff charge shows the emotion of the bear.

At first, I was skeptical of Ben's method.

Once I saw it with my own eyes,

I knew it was the best way to help our pandas.

Hou rong invites Ben to collaborate.

They'll combine his experience

and her knowledge to chart a new way forward.

Pandas inspire a frenzy of adoration around the world

and especially at home in China.

They are the king Kong of cute.

And it takes a special person to see the real bear behind the icon.

Ben and hou rong selected Jake Owens,

an American biologist, to move to China and help adapt Ben's method to pandas.

Playtime is an essential part.

It's how young animals bond and a relationship formed now

can last a lifetime.

The next scientist to join the team

was bi wen lei.

He's from a small village in inner Mongolia.

His friends call him xiao bi.

Yeah, right, it's a noodle one. We can try.

Working with giant pandas is my dream.

And I can't wait to get started.

- This one? - That one, yeah.

Introducing any captive animal to the wild is risky.

The team's first step is to pick the right panda.

They have to choose carefully.

We assess the cubs for qualities that will help them survive in the wild.

Climbing ability,

curiosity,

and courage.

We need cubs that will follow,

so we can take them for walks in the forest.

Just like Ben.

Following is good.

- Biting, not so much. - My head.

Ooh, ow!

Even little pandas bite hard.

Their jaws are built to crush bamboo.

Ah, you got my neck.

Wild pandas must survive cold winters.