The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Shaanxi Provincial
Forestry Bureau have launched a giant panda monitoring program,
establishing ID records for every giant panda living in the area of
Qinling Range.
The program aims to provide detailed and accurate statistics
about Qinling giant
pandas, which will provide scientists with information on the
Qinling panda habitats and how they change, insiders said.
The Qinling giant panda, mainly living around Qinling Range
area, China's northwest
Shaanxi Province, is a sub-species of the Sichuan giant
panda.
With a population of around 300, Qinling pandas are even fewer
than Sichuan pandas.
The construction of the monitoring and protection network,
introduced as the first comprehensive field monitoring program of
Qinling giant pandas since the third national survey on Chinese
giant pandas, will include 14 natural reserves and five
corridors.
WWF, the co-sponsor of the program, has worked for the
protection of the Qinling giant pandas for many years and has
contributed a great deal to giant panda habitat construction and
natural reserve building.
(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2006)