Life, even for a giant panda, is rarely black and white. But this four-month-old cub might still have had good reason to apply his paws to the dark circles of his face to check his eyes weren't deceiving him.

Despite resembling a particularly feverish ursine nightmare — or surreal TV show — these photographs, taken last week in Sichuan province, China, document the latest efforts to safeguard the endangered animal.

The cub, which was born to a captive mother over the summer at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda, in Wolong nature reserve, is being prepared for a life in the wild. If all goes to plan the animal, who weighs just over 8kg (18lb), will be the first such panda to go back to its natural habitat.

To ensure the environment is as free as possible from human contact and influence, researchers at the centre slip into their panda suits when physical examinations are called for. Staff are also using hidden cameras to monitor their charge's progress.

What the young panda, said to be doing well, made of his kidnap by odd creatures in fancy dress is anyone's guess. But the expression in his eyes as his two ersatz parents lean over him (right) suggests he might have had a fair idea of what was going on.

The panda houses at Wolong were destroyed by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that tore through Sichuan province in May 2008, killing 90,000 people and leaving millions homeless. Four members of Wolong's staff died, and the traumatised pandas had to be nursed back to health with hugs, games and copious quantities of bamboo. A new centre, which is costing 1.3bn yuan (£124m), is under construction about six miles from Wolong's former panda breeding centre.

The breeding programme has some innovative methods, which include showing pandas wildlife DVDs to help them learn about sex and rearing young. Ten pandas born at the centre after the quake were taken to Shanghai in January for the city's World Expo.

Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in south-west Sichuan. A further 120 pandas are at Chinese breeding sites and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China.