Giant pandas enjoy a baby boom
Print Edition
A RECORD 23 giant pandas born this year using artificial insemination techniques are still alive, a Chinese breeding center said on Thursday.
Just three of the 26 cubs born — including nine pairs of twins and one born to Mei Xiang at Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington in the United States — have died, said the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, the world’s largest artificial breeding center for the bears.
With the new cubs, the center now has 218 giant pandas. The previous record number of additions in a single year was 20 in 2013.
The number of survivors and pairs of twins are both new records for the center, which is in southwest China’s Sichuan Province and opened in the 1980s, said publicity chief Heng Yi.
The cubs, which are all between one and three months old, are in good health, he said.
Heng attributed the baby boom to improved breeding techniques, frequent cooperation with foreign zoos and a bigger “talent pool” for the annual program.
“Over the past two decades, we have seen a steady growth of artificially bred pandas, meaning we have more options when selecting healthy and biologically suitable candidates,” he said.
There are an estimated 1,864 giant pandas living in the wild, mostly in the provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi.
There were 375 in captivity at the end of 2013, according to the latest figures released by China’s forestry administration.
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