American zoos point to a rise in the wild panda numbers — 1,864 at last count — as proof that the tens of millions of dollars they have spent on conservation have hit their mark.

But that population number comes from a 2013 Chinese government tally that no one in the conservation world actually believes — including the zoos themselves.

Zoos worldwide rent pairs of pandas from China for up to $1.1 million a year, then breed them in the hope of releasing future generations into the wild.

It is one of the world’s signature conservation programs. We spent months investigating it and found that few pandas had been released and that individual pandas had been injured, burned and even killed by aggressive artificial breeding.

Zoos have glossed over the harms and declared the program a success, often by pointing to the uptick in panda numbers.