Photographing Pandas and their Return to the Wild | Nat Geo Live

China is performing a minor miracle right now. They are taking captive-born pandas and releasing them back into the wild. They're also creating corridors and creating more habitat for pandas and a whole host of other species. So, I had front row access to this, and this was quite a big privilege, because no foreigners have ever been allowed to cover this. I was there with a film team and we were covering this incredible moment as Hope, that was her name, was taking her first trepid steps out into the wild for the first time.

• Me trying to be empathetic. - (audience laughter) I dressed up in a ghillie suit because I didn't want to scare her when she was taking those steps out into the wild. And the director of the panda program, Director Zhang Hemin, also called Papa Panda, saw me and he came running up to me and he gave me a hug and he said, "You will get to hold two baby pandas." (audience laughter) "President Obama, he only held one." (audience laughter) I know! It's so crazy! (laughs)

So, they laid out their bumper crop that year of baby pandas. And then I got to go back, and this is very recent, this is this year. They actually had even a bigger bumper crop, I think it was twenty-six baby pandas born. It's incredible. (laughs) (audience laughter) They will melt your heart, truly. So they did something amazing. They cracked the code how you breed them. Because for a long time, for fifteen years, they couldn't figure out how, you know, how you successfully breed the pandas.

But it turns out, pandas are like humans. They're picky. They don't have eHarmony or Match.com. So, it took sort of realizing they needed to find a partner that they liked. And the females only are able to have a baby-- they basically have 24 to 72 hours to get pregnant. That's it, an entire year. So it's a very narrow window and you have to find the right partner for her. So they've done that.

And what is so incredible is they're born blind, deaf and just a little squiggle of a thing. And completely helpless. But the mothers are incredible, they just take such good care. They won't-- for days, they go without water and food and they just hold on to their babies and take care of them.

• They're one of the fastest-- - (audience laughter) fastest growing mammals. So, this little guy is maybe a month old. So they grow fast. And literally every week I'd go into the incubator room and they would just grow in front of your eyes. Incredible.