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Artificial Reproduction May Save Giant Pandas from Extinction: Expert
Sophisticated reproduction technology can help prevent giant pandas from extinction, said Zhang Anju, director of the China Panda Breeding Technology Committee.
The Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center, based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, had only several sick pandas at first, but now it has more than 30 after 20 years of development, according to Zhang. The center has become the largest giant panda breeding base in China, and even in the world, he said.
Zhang said that the base is expecting a reproduction tide beginning from this year.
Zhang anticipated that eight pandas will be born in the base annually from this year on and starting from 2005, 15 pandas will be born on a yearly basis.
Calculating on such a birth rate, the base expects to have 300 giant pandas by 2050, Zhang said.
China began artificially reproducing the rare animal in the 1960s, and so far, 61 of 96 artificially-bred pandas have survived.
Zhang said, China has started experimenting with sending the captive giant pandas back to the wilderness in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province. If the experiments prove to be successful, the dream of saving the rare creatures from extinction through artificial reproduction may come true, Zhang said.
There are around 1,000 wild pandas worldwide, most of them live in west China.
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