Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
BEIJING – Sixty pandas relocated last year from a famous Chinese nature reserve after their breeding center was severely damaged by a massive earthquake will return home after repairs in 2012.
The panda breeding center in the Wolong nature reserve in southwest China's Sichuan province is undergoing a 379 million yuan ($55 million) reconstruction expected to be completed by 2011, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Saturday.
The Wolong reserve's location in a damp, narrow valley several hours from Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, made it vulnerable during the 7.9-magnitude quake, which sent boulders the size of cars crashing down, destroying enclosures and administrative buildings.
The May 12, 2008, quake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, including 12 staffers at the panda center.
The center had 63 pandas before the quake, but one died, another went missing and a third died of illness, Xinhua said, citing Luo Zengbin, deputy head of the provincial forestry department. The surviving pandas have been moved to zoos elsewhere in China, with most sent to the Bifengxia panda base in the city of Ya'an.
About 1,590 pandas are living in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity.
Wolong is part of efforts to breed giant pandas in hopes of increasing the species' chances of survival.
China quake-hit pandas to return home: state media
Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
BEIJING (AFP) – Sixty giant pandas who were transferred to zoos around China after last year's devastating earthquake in Sichuan province destroyed their home are set to return in 2012, state media reported.
The 8.0-magnitude quake in May last year left more than 87,000 people dead and missing in Sichuan, and seriously damaged the Wolong nature reserve, which had 63 pandas in captivity, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday.
One panda was killed in the tremor, one is still missing, and another died of an illness, the report quoted Luo Zengbin, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department, as saying.
The quake also killed 12 people who worked with the pandas, seriously injured 57 others, and damaged nearly 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of the animals' habitat in southwestern China, the report said.
The surviving animals were moved to zoos in other parts of the country while the Wolong base underwent a 380-million-yuan (56 million dollars) reconstruction programme, expected to be completed by 2011.
They should return to their home base in 2012, the report said.
There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild around China, mostly in Sichuan, northern Shaanxi and northwestern Gansu provinces. A total of 180 have been bred in captivity, according to earlier reports.
But their notoriously low libidos have frustrated efforts to boost their numbers.
In a recent report issued by the World Wildlife Fund, the conservation group warned that the giant panda could soon die out as rapid economic development is infringing on its way of life.
