The 13 panda cubs from the Wolong panda breeding base of southwest China's Sichuan province born after the devastating earthquake had their first group show in front of visitors, said local sources on Wednesday.
"Currently the 13 cubs are all in good shape and growing healthily," said Li Desheng, vice director of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan's Wolong nature reserve, extending his greetings to Chinese people on behalf of the center at the Spring Festival.
The Wolong base, only 30 km from the quake's epicenter of Wenchuan County, suffered severe damage in the "May 12" earthquake with the death of five staff and one panda. Fourteen of the 32 pens were destroyed. Pandas were later evacuated to other breeding bases.
The first post-quake panda twin cubs were born on July 6. To date, 15 cubs had been born since the disaster, among whom 13 survived.
The Wolong base now has more than 140 giant pandas, accounting for 60 percent of the bred pandas worldwide.
(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2009)
