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Backgrounder: Wolong - home to giant pandas

Xinhua, February 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province announced it has the largest captive population of giant pandas in the world, in the fourth decennial panda census released on Saturday.

According to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Pandas (CCRCGP), which is based in Wolong, the reserve has 104 giant pandas, down from 145 recorded in the third full survey in 2004.

The drop has been attributed to localized mudslides and a 8.0 magnitude in the 2008 earthquake that severely damaged the research center.

Established in 1963, the reserve in Wenchuan County stretches for 20,000 hectares. Its coverage was expanded to 200,000 hectares in 1975. In 1978, Wolong set up the world's first wild panda observatory.

In 1983, arrow bamboo, the pandas preferred food, mass flowered, a rare event that only occurs every 45 years. In the space of a few months after flowering, the bamboo seeds and dies, a huge contributor to starvation among the animals.

The number of wild pandas in Wolong has dropped to no more than 90, according to the second panda census released in 1987.

Wolong built semi-wild feeding farms to help the starving pandas while it bred new varieties of bamboo to address the food crisis. By 2000, the bamboo forests in Wolong had been restored.

In addition, researchers in Wolong have developed giant panda breeding methods. Wolong also pioneered the wilderness training of giant pandas in China.

As an important platform for international giant panda cooperation, up to 80 percent of pandas participating in domestic and global exchange programs are from Wolong.

A total of 42 adults and cubs were living overseas in 12 countries as of June 2014. China has conducted collaborative research with 17 zoos from Japan, the United States, Austria, Thailand, Spain, Australia, Britain, France, Singapore, Canada, Belgium and Malaysia.

Wolong Nature Reserve is also home to many other endangered species such as lesser pandas, golden monkeys as well as rare plants. Endi