CHENGDU, June 6 -- A giant panda will return to the bamboo groves of southwest China's Sichuan Province from neighboring Yunnan Province, the last of three pandas evacuated to Yunnan to go home after the 2008 earthquake leveled their habitat.
A female, Sijia will soon return to the Hetaoping Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Pandas (CCRC) in Sichuan's 200,000-hectare Wolong National Nature Reserve.
The earthquake in May of 2008 wreaked havoc at Wolong and Sijia was transferred to a Yunnan zoo with two other pandas, Qianqian and Meiqian which returned to Sichuan in 2012 and 2014.
Online reports suggest that 125-kilogram Sijia, born in 2006, lived in a bad environment at the zoo, but the CCRC said she remains in good condition. Blood tests showed no abnormalities.
The giant panda lives mainly in the mountains of Sichuan and the northwestern provinces Shaanxi and Gansu. They are threatened by habitat loss and a low birthrate.
Only about 1,600 still exist in the wild, and some 300 live in captivity around the world.
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