All about the giant panda

The giant panda, one of China's most endangered species, has won affection and attention worldwide with their "cute" appearance. The giant panda lives mainly in the mountains of China's southwestern province of Sichuan and northwestern provinces Shaanxi and Gansu. They are threatened by habitat loss and a very low birthrate. Only about 1,600 still exist in the wild, and some 300 live in captivity around the world. There are 64 panda reserves, covering 60 percent of their natural habitat and 70 percent of wild individuals. RANGE AND POPULATION The Wolong Panda Reserve, 200,000 hectares in Sichuan's Wenchuan County, was founded in 1963 as the "home of the giant panda". The reserve is on the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, China's longest waterway. It is home to at least 2,000 vertebrate species and more than 4,000 plant species, including over 40 kinds of bamboos, the panda's preferred diet. Wolong was damaged in the May 2008 earthquake and most of its pandas and staff were transferred to another facility in Ya'an, 140 kilometers from provincial capital Chengdu. Wolong restarted teaching captive bred pandas how to live in the wild, two years after the earthquake. The program began in 2003 and still faces many challenges. Experts are still struggling to understand how captive pandas adapt to a new, wild environment. Most females enter estrum in April and May, some in the fall, and usually give birth to one baby at a time. Captive bred giant pandas often have very little sexual appetite. Tackling the pandas' breeding problems has been going on since the 1980s. Attempts have included artificial insemination using frozen semen and even showing the pandas videos of natural mating in the wild. In 2013, 42 out of 49 panda cubs in China survived, a historical high. Director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) Zhang Hemin said great progress had been made in breeding of captive-bred pandas. Last year there were a total of 376 captive-bred giant pandas around the world, up 10.3 percent over the previous year. HOW TO GET A PANDA LEGALLY By 1982, 24 Chinese giant pandas had been presented to nine countries including the former Soviet Union, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Mexico, Spain and the Federal Republic of Germany. Donations to other countries stopped in the 1980s. The only way to get a panda now is by leasing one, or through research cooperation. Currently, 43 guest pandas, including their foreign-born cubs, live in 17 zoos in 12 countries who have established research cooperation with China. Among these, 41 belong to China. Mexican pair are descendants of those donated in the 1980s. When choosing pandas to go on missions abroad, a pair of hometown friends are usually chosen. Although it is an "arranged marriage", it helps breeding research. In Zhang Hemin's words, "do not waste giant pandas' youth." If a foreign country wants a giant panda, step one is submitting an application, but not all applications are accepted. Climate, facilities, technology and potential panda habitat are taken into consideration. The preparations often take over a year. Zhong Yi, in charge of international cooperation at the China Wildlife Conservation Association, said 10 year leases were the norm and all giant pandas, including babies born overseas, belong to China. Even cast hairs, blood samples, etc. should be sent back, according to the convention. The international missions of giant pandas have benefited the world's biodiversity and wildlife protection. During the process, China shared its breeding technologies with cooperating foreign countries. Those countries made reciprocal contributions to the protection of giant pandas and their natural habitat in China.