With two barks and a charge at a film crew, Xiang Xiang the panda today became the first captive-born giant panda to be released into the wild.

The four-year-old male panda was set free in the bamboo-covered mountains of Sichuan Province in southwest China—more than 40 years after the first captive-bred giant panda was born.

Xiang Xiang, whose name means lucky or auspicious, has been fitted with a collar carrying a satellite tracking device so researchers can keep tabs on his whereabouts.

On his release this morning the panda barked twice like an angry dog and ran at a National Geographic Society film crew before quickly vanishing into the forest, according to eyewitness reports.

Conservationists hope this pioneer panda will