A wild giant panda appeared on a highway in Shimian County, Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Saturday, and a villager captured the scene with his mobile phone while driving through a national nature reserve on his way home.

Upon learning about the sighting, researchers of Liziping National Nature Reserve immediately came to the spot to search for traces of the panda in order to determine its physical condition.

The nature reserve's administration director, Luo Wei, said they would build a file for the giant panda in their panda DNA database.

Luo said the county had identified 32 pandas by the end of 2020, and nine had been released into the wild to help increase the population. 

(Cover image via screenshot)

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