PlanetArk 13 Nov 07;
BEIJING - Giant pandas living in the wild in the misty mountains of southwest China are facing a possible food shortage as bamboo plants, their staple diet, near the end of their lifespan, state media said on Monday.
Yang Xuyu, deputy head of the Wild Animal Preservation Station of the provincial forestry bureau, responsible for monitoring 24,000 hectares of bamboo, issued the warning at a panda breeding conference on Sunday.
"Nine varieties of bamboo have been observed flowering in 14 counties in Sichuan since 2005, which account for 30 percent of bamboo eaten by the pandas," Yang was quoted as saying.
"No wild panda has been found dead of starvation. But as the area of bamboo flowering spreads, we should keep close watch on the severity of the pandas' food shortages."
The mountainous region witnessed extensive blossoming of the arrow bamboo, the pandas' favorite, in 1984 and 1987, when the plants flowered, seeded and died. Hundreds of the endangered animals died of starvation.
Pandas eat 20 or so bamboo species. A research centre for endangered animals in the western province of Shaanxi has carried out tests aimed at helping pandas to broaden their eating habits.
The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found only in China. An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)
China pandas forced to migrate for food
Henry Sanderson, Associated Press, Yahoo News 13 Nov 07;
Giant pandas are being forced to move from a remote mountainous area in southwestern China due to food shortages as their staple bamboo withers, an animal expert said Monday.
Most of the pandas' favorite arrow bamboo in a 217,000 square-mile region of Sichuan province is going through a once-in-60-year cycle of flowering and dying before regenerating, said Yang Xuyu, deputy head of the province's Wild Animal Preservation Station.
The pandas are moving to other areas of Sichuan, which has about 40 reserves of various sizes.
"No wild panda has been found dead of starvation," said Yang. But more than 80 percent of bamboo in the affected region, called Ruoergai, is now unfit for the animals to eat, he said. Pandas will not touch the plant once it flowers.
About 1,200 pandas — 80 percent of the surviving wild population in China — live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan.
Hundreds of pandas died of starvation in Sichuan in the 1980s when arrow bamboo in some reserves flowered and then died.
Pandas derive most of their nutrition from arrow bamboo and can starve once the plant enters its dying-off stage. The bamboo produces seeds before dying, and takes 10 to 20 years to grow back.
Yang told a conference on panda survival in Chengdu, Sichuan, on Sunday that a shrinking habitat due to farming and industrial development makes it increasingly hard for the animals in the wild to find food during the bamboo life cycle, according to the Xinhua news agency.
China's forestry bureau is carrying out a panda rescue drive and working with the World Wildlife Fund to try to restore panda migration paths, Xinhua said.
Also Monday, Xinhua reported that a record 12 pairs of panda twins were born in captivity this year, thanks to a maturation of artificial breeding techniques that China first started exploring in the 1960s, according to Zhang Zhihe, head of China's Giant Panda Breeding Technology Commission.
A total of 31 pandas were born this year. Last year, 33 were born, including 11 pairs of twins, Xinhua said.
See also Asian bears at risk from poaching, deforestation: wildlife group
