Tao Tao's mother Cao Cao was discovered alone in a village in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, when she was just a year old. She was later taken to a semi-wild panda training base in Hetaoping, affiliated with the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan.
Born in the summer of 2010, Tao Tao learned essential survival skills from his mother at the Hetaoping base, including how to forage and climb trees. Highly alert to unfamiliar sounds, he instinctively avoided danger or climbed trees to hide. During their training, the mother and cub also endured mudslides, snowstorms and torrential rain.
