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On the morning of Sept 26, 12 baby pandas were born at the Panda Base in Chengdu. The population of captive pandas in Chengdu has now reached 108. The Base has become the largest artificial breeding ground for pandas in the world.
In March 1987, Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding (or Panda Base) was established to hold pandas in captive for feeding, breeding, disease prevention and relative scientific research and science education purposes. After the hard work of generations of employees, the Panda Base has bred 161 babies from 109 births, among which 119 has survived and 2 of them have been given to Macao SAR Government as precious gifts from the central government. They have settled in Macao since December 19, 2010.
It is reported that the Panda Base has always been the leader in terms of scientific and technological development, and has won more than 50 national, ministerial and other levels of achievements, including 4 at national and 18 at provincial and ministerial level. It has also overcome many key technical problems, such as frozen semen artificial breeding, semen freezing, artificial insemination, which has played a decisive role in promoting the protection of panda ex situ conservation.
In terms of international cooperation of panda breeding, in 1994, it started the first long-term international scientific and research cooperation with researchers from zoos in Japan, America and Spain. By the end of 2010, through the tireless efforts made by Japanese and Chinese experts, pandas that live in Japan have successfully bred 13 babies from 7 births, 11 have survived. Japan is currently the most successful overseas breeding ground for pandas.
In regards to wild panda protection, there are currently 4 national panda reserves; Chengdu, Qionglai, Dayi, Chongzhou, Dujiangyan, while other regions are also home to wild pandas. Pandas have also recently been seen at Chengdu Xiling Snow Mountain and Anzi River Nature Reserve. This indicates that Chengdu wild pandas have recovered rapidly after the Wenchuan earthquake.
According to the panda protection plan, in the following 3 to 5 years, the Chengdu Panda Base will strive to become the nation’s first key laboratory with international standards in the field of protecting endangered animals. It will play an important scientific and technological supportive role in protecting and utilizing biodiversity conservation. The Base also provides an excellent training ground for releasing pandas to the wild. A transitional test area and experimental area to release pandas to the wild will be set up in Dujiangyan Research Center.