China's State Forestry Administration confirmed in Beijing
Wednesday that the country currently has 217 pandas that have been
bred in captivity.
Thirty-four panda cubs were born by artificial insemination in
2006 and 30 of them survived, said spokesperson Cao Qingyao, adding
that both figures are records.
Twenty-nine of the surviving panda cubs were bred by zoologists
in Southwest China's Sichuan Province with 17 being born at the
Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center and 12 at the
Chengdu Research Base. The other panda was bred at Chongqing
Zoo.
Sources with the forestry administration said earlier that more
than 30 female pandas nationwide were inseminated in spring
including one at Beijing Zoo and another in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
A panda cub was born at Beijing Zoo but died and an attempt in
Shaanxi was not successful, according to the sources. China has
been breeding pandas through artificial insemination for nearly 50
years.
Experts estimate there are about 1,600 pandas living in the wild
in China. The vast majority of them--about 1,100--reside in the 59
natural reserves that China had set up for pandas by the end of
2006.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)