Pandas to be relocated due to quake hazards

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-6-24  |     ONLINE EDITION

ALL giant pandas still at a major breeding base in earthquake-devastated Sichuan Province will be temporarily moved as landslides and other quake-related hazards remain a big threat, Chengdu Business Daily reported today.

The decision to evacuate came after experts concluded the mountainous terrain in Sichuan was still too hazardous for the endangered animals and their keepers.

Some pandas at Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center in the Wolong nature reserve will be moved to nearby breeding centers. Other pandas will be moved to temporary homes much further away in the east and south of the country, the report said.

The pandas will all be temporarily dispersed until a new Wolong panda breeding center is built in two to three years. The Forestry Department of Sichuan said the new center was very likely to be situated at Huangcaoping inside the Wolong nature reserve.

The first batch of 13 great pandas was moved to a breeding base in Ya'an, Sichuan, on June 18.

The construction of 17 temporary shelters has started at Ya'an Bifengixa Base. It will be home to 40 pandas within a month. Another 20 permanent houses will be built by mid October.

According to the evacuation plan, another 19 pandas will be moved to other breeding bases, including a breeding and research center in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan; the Fuzhou Panda Research Center in Fujian Province; and the Fanyu Wild Animal Zoo in Guangdong Province.

Only 1,590 pandas live in the wild and about 1,400 were in the area of Sichuan that was rocked by the May 12 earthquake.