China says it probes hunting of giant pandas

Reuters 14 Dec 07;

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The Chinese government is investigating reports that villagers were persuaded to hunt down giant pandas and trade their pelts, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A spokesman for the State Forestry Administration told Xinhua that local forestry police had detected several cases of such illegal activities around Ya'an City in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

"We have sent a working group to supervise the investigations and we will prosecute anyone involved," Cao Qingyao said, according to the agency despatch late on Friday.

Citing a report carried in China's Nanfang Weekend newspaper on Thursday, Xinhua said mysterious buyers of panda fur had been persuading villagers to hunt and kill the endangered species.

The pelt of a panda could fetch up to 500,000 yuan ($68,000), a massive draw to villagers who earn less than 3,000 yuan a year, Xinhua said, citing the Nanfang report.

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found only in China.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild, most in the mountains of southwestern China, Xinhua said. The Ya'an reserve is home to about 300 wild pandas.

(Reporting by Charlie Zhu; editing by Roger Crabb)