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 BEIJING (AP) - The first panda bred in captivity and released into the wild has died in China after less than a year — the apparent victim of a fall. Chinese officials said the body bore injuries inflicted by wild pandas, and the animal may have died trying to escape.
The body of the 5-year-old panda, Xiang Xiang, was found Feb. 19 on snow-covered ground in the forests of Sichuan province in China's southwest, the Xinhua News Agency said. He survived less than a year despite nearly three years of training on surviving in the wild.
"Xiang Xiang died of serious internal injuries in the left side of his chest and stomach by falling from a high place," Heng Yi, an official from the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in Sichuan, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
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